MMLC
Introduced in early 1990s, the truck was a military development of the commercial Leyland T45 Roadtrain. As the company had entrusted to Scammell the development of the commercial 8legged variant (S24 Constructor range), the military variant was developed as the Scammell S26. Initially developed for the 1986 DROPS trials as a 6x6, the final 8x6 S26 had a Rolls Royce Perkins 350 Eagle engine; 12 litre diesel @ 350 horsepower (260 kW)), ZF 6-speed automatic gearbox and Kirkstall axles.
In February 1987 the company learnt that its tender for 1,522 such vehicles was successful, but that as Leyland group had been purchased by DAF NV of Holland, that the S26 would be built at the Leyland factory in Leyland, Lancashire, allowing complete closure of Scammell's Watford site. Leyland eventually produced 1,421 MMLC vehicles, plus a number of vehicle cabs ordered as spares. Due to damage, the entire MoD stock of spare cabs has now been exhausted.
During the 1st Gulf War, the vehicles suffered from sand ingress, which resulted in a total failure of the engine plant. A modification was made quickly introduced to raise the air intake to avoid the sand ingress. During the 2002, the fleet underwent a major midlife upgrade/refurbishment. This included the introduction of an ABS braking system. The MMLC had two trailer types, (known as King & Queen trailers) specifically designed to carry the same load pallet which was transferred from the main vehicle.The Queen trailer was supplied by Reynolds Boughton but the King trailer was indeed supplied by King Trailers who have since 1962 been the UK's biggest manufacturer of trailers for specialist loads. The Leyland DAF MMLC vehicles were mainly issued to the Royal Corps of Transport (RCT), later to become Royal Logistic Corps (RLC), however a number of these vehicles were provided to other units along with the RAF Regiment.
Read more about this topic: Demountable Rack Offload And Pickup System