I saw one of these today with a solo police ■■■■■■, odd that it wasn’t part of a bigger convoy and equally odd that it was in Braintree which I can’t think is on the way to or from anywhere that might deal with nukes.
OK so I’m a bit of an anorak but as soon as I spotted it I knew what it was, the olive drab instantly sets it apart from everything else on the road and when you look closer it’s a slightly odd curtainsider being pulled by a mega long wheelbase unit. What do these things weigh? It would seem as if they are heavy but I would have thought a powerful 6x4 with a standardish wheelbase with the trailer carrying the spares and the whole lot painted white, black or whatever would be a lot less obvious. OK so any terrorist type will know what they are but as people are so anti this sort of thing I’d have thought blending in rather than standing out would have been better.
Yes I know there’s a convoy but I nicked the pics from Nukewatch
Yeah, I remember seeing these on tradeplates a few months ago and wondered if they would be replacement for the ageing Foden 8x4 tractors used on warhead transport. Looks like they have put a DAF Space cab on top of that Mercedes.
The total cost of the procurement of nine new truck cargo heavy duty tractor heads, eight refurbished truck cargo heavy duty trailers plus associated research and development costs was £12 million at outturn prices.
My uncle works for AWE in Aldermaston where they make them. Obviously he doesn’t disclose much but the trucks arnt like the ones in the pics. And they go up to Scotland where the subs are based. Quite a bit off route if he’s in Braintree
It’s quite interesting stuff though. Seemingly it could have been an excercise using MDP Wethersfield which is used for controlling the vehicle movements. Or maybe they had bought something big on ebay.
Having being doing some internet searches on AWE , TCHD etc I’ve probably just created an intelligence file somewhere
My grandad used to get into alsorts, he was some kind of engineer in the army but part of some special forces unit during the war from what I’ve heard. He once told me a story about a lorry load of bottles of nitroglycerin (VERY sensitive stuff), I can’t remember it all but it involved a few bottles falling off and exploding!
No-one knew what had happened but it was assumed a tyre had gone bang, the local bobby pulled him over and suggested he check his tyres, making conversation he asked the driver what he was carrying and promptly went very pale indeed before disappearing rather quickly!
