Heavy Equipment Transport System (abbreviated as HETS) is a term applied (primarily) to a U.S. Army logistics vehicle transport system, the primary purpose of which is to transport the M1 Abrams tank. It is also used to transport, deploy, and evacuate armored personnel carriers, self-propelled artillery, armored bulldozers and other heavy vehicles and equipment of all types.
The current U.S. Army vehicle used in this role is an Oshkosh-built M1070 tractor unit in A0 and A1 configurations which is coupled to a DRS Technologies M1000 semi-trailer. This combination replaced the earlier Oshkosh-built M911 tractor unit and M747 semi-trailer.
To meet a US Army requirement for the transport of the M1A1 Abrams main battle tank (MBT) Oshkosh Truck Corporation (now Oshkosh Defense) proposed the M1070. A contract for 1044 M1070 was placed, with production commencing in July 1992. The final U.S. Army contract for the original A0 version called for 195 vehicles. These were delivered between March 2001 and March 2003. U.S. Army deliveries of A0 versions totalled 2,488. Following extensive use, some M1070 have been Reset to original build standard by Oshkosh.
The M1070E1 model was developed in the mid-1990s in conjunction with the U.S. Army as a possible Technology Insertion Programme (TIP) for the M1070. No orders were placed.
In March 2008 Oshkosh Defense announced the award of a contract from the U.S. Army to begin engineering and initial production of the next-generation of HET.Oshkosh announced in October 2010 its first delivery order for the M1070A1 HET. Production of the M1070A1 concluded in August 2014, with new vehicle production totalling 1,591.
The trailer used with the M1070A0 and M1070A1 is the M1000. The M1000 was originally developed as a private venture by Southwest Mobile Systems (later Systems & Electronics Inc (SEI), now DRS Technologies) as a response to a possible US Army requirement for transporting M1 and M1A1 MBTs. A production order for 1,066 M1000 units was placed by the U.S. Army in 1989. By July 2009 more than 2600 M1000 trailers had been ordered.
The M25 Tank Transporter was a heavy tank transporter and tank recovery vehicle used in World War II and beyond by the US Army. Nicknamed the Dragon Wagon, the M25 was composed of a 6×6 armored tractor (M26) and 40-ton trailer (M15).
Prior to 1993, the U.S. Army employed the Commercial Heavy Equipment Transporter (C-HET), which consisted of either the M746 or the M911 truck tractor and the M747 semitrailer.
During Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm the M911 vehicles were employed primarily to haul M1 Abrams tanks. However, they demonstrated poor durability when loads exceeded 60 tons. Some are still serving as heavy transports of other military equipment, such as cargo handling equipment.
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