One of the new Bridge Erection Propulsion Boats (BEPB) manouveres a Floating Support Bridge into position during training on the Georges River in Sydney. A BEPB cuts through the murky water of the Georges River. Photos by Bill Cunneen, Army newspaper

Rivers are no obstacle
First of 24 bridge boats enters service

By Maj John Liston
THE first of 24 Bridge Erection Propulsion Boats (BEPB) has joined the Army and is now undergoing work-up training at the School of Military Engineering (SME).

The BEPBs, from Birdon Marine in Port Macquarie, NSW, will replace the current fleet of Bridge Erection Boats (BEB) which began life in the RAE in 1969, but are now very costly to maintain in service.

The $14 million contract includes integrated logistic support, technical documentation and initial in-service training.

The new boats are based on the German Type MB 3 but their hulls are Australian-designed and are driven by two 210hp Cummins water-cooled marine diesel engines powering Schottel water-jets.

Unlike the German boats, the BEPBs have their engines mounted centrally so that the operator has all-round access on the deck while manoeuvring Floating Support Bridge (FSB) modules into place.

According to WO2 Michael Durnin, DMO's engineer equipment adviser, it is the water-jet propulsion that makes the BEPBs extremely agile and very stable.

"This new boat is so manoeuvrable it can turn in its own space and seeing is believing," he said.

The jets can rotate 360 degrees and, being flush with the hull, do not protrude from the boat's stern or bottom, reducing the risk of fouling the waterjets or injuring sappers working in the water nearby.

The BEPBs can operate effectively in less than half the depth of their predecessors.

Their engines have enough thrust to manoeuvre an Abrams tank on an FSB raft across a river.

The BEPB/FSB combination are vital mobility assets for any army requiring a wet-gap crossing capability. Their importance was reinforced during Op Iraqi Freedom when the US Army's 4th Infantry Division took five hours to 'build' a 600m improved ribbon bridge across the Tigris River near Tikrit. This was the longest floating bridge constructed in a combat area since WW2.

The Army's first boat, a prototype named "Sapper", is currently at SME undergoing operator evaluation and reliability and maintainability analysis.

"This way we can make limited modifications prior to construction of the first batch of five boats," WO2 Durnin said.

The remaining 23 production boats will be rotated through SME in order to build up significant engine hours while still in the warranty period, before they go to the regular Army's three Combat Engineer Regiments.

SME will conduct the first boat operator course in October, and the CERs will receive their allocation of four BEPBs once members currently qualified on the in-service BEBs have completed conversion training from SME instructors at their units.

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