The new amphibious bridging vehicle

By Feng Cheng and Niu Hui

SHENYANG, Sept. 4 -- An engineering unit attached to a combined arms brigade of the PLA 78th Group Army conducted in mid August the first field training of the new amphibious bridging vehicle. This new equipment will make the engineer troops more capable in performing the river-crossing support tasks. 

The 26-tonne vehicle can travel at a maximum speed of 90 kilometers per hour while on the ground and 12 kilometers per hour while in water. It can be expand into a 13-meter-long, 20-meter-wide pontoon craft in three minutes. Multiple bridging vehicles can be linked together to form a pontoon bridge.

At the training site, an amphibious bridging vehicle arrived at the ferry and slowly ran into the water and transformed into a pontoon craft. A wheeled infantry combat vehicle slowly moved onto the platform of the pontoon craft and parked itself steadily. The pontoon craft carrying the combat vehicle headed to the opposite bank of the river. After the combat vehicle drove off the craft and galloped away, the wheeled pontoon craft landed ashore and changed back into a vehicle.

Next, the engineer unit will conduct training exercises including night driving and multi-pontoon equipment loading with the bridging vehicles.