Specification and Procurement
Leyland and Foden vehicles mounting Multilift loading equipment were selected from designs submitted to the Ministry of Defence, by a wide cross-section of the UK engineering industry. It was by far the most detailed, searching and expensive selection process ever undertaken for a British Army logistic system and never before had wheeled vehicles been required to transport such large loads over such demanding cross-country conditions.
The provisionally selected vehicles were extensively trialled for a year by a specially-formed trials unit, before both the unit and the MOD were completely satisfied that they met the Army's requirements in all respects. Because of the finance controls placed on the MOD by the Treasury, all DROPS vehicles and equipment were limited in their design to operate effectively only in NATO's European climatic conditions of temperature and humidity, and as such both variants were only available in left hand drive only. It has, therefore, been a challenging engineering problem to ensure that they have performed extremely well under war conditions in an environment for which they were specifically not designed - the desert!
Read more about this topic: Demountable Rack Offload And Pickup System