February 2009: The future combat engineer vehicle of the British Army has entered production at BAE Systems last month. The Army plans to field 60 Terriers. The first Terrier hull will be used for mine blast trials to demonstrate that the vehicle meets the designed protection levels. According to BAE Systems, the Terrier’s armor was improved based on experience gained on other vehicles during operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The complete hull will be available for trials towards the end of 2010. Assembly, integration and test of the first production vehicle is scheduled to commence in the first half of 2011.
In December 2009 two Terrier demonstrator vehicles finished a two-month performance trial designed to demonstrate the system’s reliability. During these trials the vehicles traveled 3,300km, on road, track and cross country, excavated over 170 pits and Warrior infantry fighting vehicles, and AS 90 self-propelled howitzers, and moved over 15,500 tons of spoil. The vehicles operated in manned and unmanned configurations, performing a range of route clearance and denial operations and placement of ditch-crossing fascines.
