Amphibious Floating Bridge and Ferry System

Amphibious Floating Bridge and Ferry System (AFFS) have been developed in india by the Research and Development Establishment, Pune, a part of DRDO, which acts as a vehicle carrier bridge on road transport and as a ferry or floating bridge in water. The vehicle having dimention: 10m x 3.6m x 4m, can be coverted to a fully decked bridge of length 28.4 metres or ferry in nine minutes. It is a two-axled vehicle with Weight of 42 tons, and can achieve 55 kmph speed on road and 40 kmph during the cross country and also have an aquatic mobility of 2.7 m/sec with twin pump jets which give forward, reverse, lateral and yawing motion as well. The AFFS has axle retraction arrangement, which facilitates complete retraction of the wheels inside the hull body during deployment and provides adjustable ground clearance during transportation. Two more vehicles can be joined in tandem to form a floating bridge of length 105m, in 30 minutes. The bridge superstructure is integrated with floats to provide stability and additional buoyancy. The floats have compartments to minimize the buoyancy loss in case of puncturing. A low pressure (1.1 bar absolute) and high flow (20 m3 / min) pneumatic system has been used for inflation and deflation of floats. The operational control of the pneumatic system is PLC-based to get automation on safety during floatation.

A technology demonstrator Amphibious Floating Bridge & Ferry System (AFFS) have been developed. The prototype aims at establishing competence in the development of systems with dual capability to move on land and water with floating bridge of MLC30 class for negotiation of water obstacles. It is a fore-runner to MLC 70 class of AFFS required by the Army.

See also

• Kartik BLT
• BLT T-72
• Arjun BLT
• Sarvatra