Military Engineering 2010 — Armored Engineering Vehicle 3 KODIAK

The AEV 3 KODIAK com­bines the mul­ti­func­tion­al char­ac­ter­is­tics of an engi­neer­ing vehi­cle with the char­ac­ter­is­tics of a main bat­tle tank. The KODIAK 3 is mount­ed on the Leop­ard 2 tank chas­sis and in this way it pro­vides the three-men crew with a high lev­el pro­tec­tion against bal­lis­tic and land­mine threats. 

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These char­ac­ter­is­tics enable the mil­i­tary engi­neers to build and demol­ish obsta­cles in com­bat, includ­ing mine­field breach­ing. The civ­il com­po­nent plays besides the mil­i­tary com­po­nent a big role, these vehi­cles are also used for peace­keep­ing and peace enforce­ment as well as in dis­as­ter relief missions. 

Pro­tec­tion and weapons

Armored Engi­neer Vehi­cle 3 KODIAK Copy­right: Jens Hohmann

With pulled out axca­va­tor Copy­right: Jens Hohmann

As men­tioned before the AEV 3 KODIAK is mount­ed on a leop­ard 2 chas­sis and is equipped with a NBC sys­tem, a crew com­part­ment with a heat­ing and cool­ing sys­tem, and an inte­grat­ed mine pro­tec­tion includ­ing seats. Depend­ing on the cos­tumer wish and scope of duties it is pos­si­ble to inte­grate var­i­ous sys­tems like a bat­tle­field man­age­ment sys­tem or a radio and inter­com sys­tem. The weapon sta­tion (e.g. RCWS PROTECTOR or QIMEK) can be equipped with a weapon up to 12.7 mm cal..The stan­dard con­fig­u­ra­tion con­tains a smoke grenade launch­er (e.g. 2x8 grenades 76 mm) and if wished an addi­tion­al grenade launch­er can be installed. 

Con­trol ele­ments and vision con­cept
The crew con­sists of a com­man­der and a driver/engineer (respec­tive­ly com­man­der, dri­ver and a pio­neer) can con­trol all func­tions includ­ing the weapon sta­tion man­u­al­ly or by a remote-con­trol. That means by using a cam­era sys­tem the crew has the oppor­tu­ni­ty to oper­ate and use all sys­tems with closed hatch­es. Every crew mem­ber can mon­i­tor inde­pen­dent­ly the var­i­ous func­tions by his own dis­play. While the com­man­der is respon­si­ble for the weapon sta­tion the driver/engineer is oper­at­ing the rest of the sys­tems.
The AEV 3 KODIAK can be equipped with up to six cam­eras. Besides a front and rear cam­era for the maneu­ver­ing of the vehi­cle, there are two more on the right and left rear rack and one on the exca­va­tor and doz­er com­po­nent. Besides the cam­era pic­tures the dri­ver dis­play shows oth­er sta­tus infor­ma­tion. Infor­ma­tion like speed, engine speed etc. are dis­played at a sep­a­rate dis­play inte­grat­ed into the steer­ing handle. 

Exca­va­tor tools and sys­tem

Rear rack for addi­tion­al tools Copy­right: Jens Hohmann

The Sys­tem fea­tures a hydrauli­cal­ly actu­at­ed quick cou­pling device, includ­ing hydraulic inter­face for var­i­ous exca­va­tor tools. A uni­ver­sal grip­per, a hydraulic ham­mer and a con­crete crush­er belong to the exca­va­tor tools. Addi­tion­al­ly to the pre-installed exca­va­tor tool there is room for the trans­porta­tion of two more tools on the rear rack of the vehi­cle. The exchange and instal­la­tion of the tools can be done by the crew with­out leav­ing the crew com­part­ment by using a remote-con­trol.
The buck­et vol­ume is 1 m³ and with a hor­i­zon­tal oper­at­ing range up to 9 m and a ver­ti­cal up to 2.2 m the lift­ing capac­i­ty is up to 3–5 t at max­i­mum range. 

Doz­er sys­tem

Plough exten­sions left and right Copy­right: Jens Hohmann

Pear­son full-width mine plough Copy­right: Jens Hohmann

The doz­er width is 3.42 or 4.02 m with side exten­sions. The two scar­i­fiers has a length of 0.3 m with a vari­able cut­ting angle from 24 to 79 degrees and a vari­able tilt angle of +/- 5 degrees. 

Mine breach­ing sys­tem
The mine breach­ing sys­tem con­sists of a Pear­son Full-Width Mine Plough with a clear­ing width of more than 4.2 m and a adjustable clear­ing depth between 0 and 300 mm. Fur­ther­more the vehi­cle is equipped with a Pear­son Lane Mark­ing Sys­tem that marks the already cleared way with 50 rods per side. 

Winch sys­tem
The winch sys­tem has two 9 t Rot­zler winch­es (cap­stan type) with a dynam­ic pulling force of 90 kN up to 6 m/min and a sin­gle pull of 2.5 kN at 90 m/min. The max­i­mum usable cable length is 200 m. 

AEV 3 KODIAK Basic / Engi­neer Version

Armored Engi­neer Vehi­cle 3 KODIAK with mount­ed MG Copy­right: Jens Hohmann

Dimen­sions
Length	10,200 mm
Height with­out MG	2,600 mm
Trans­port width	3,540 mm
Com­bat weight	MLC 70
Dri­ve
Engine	MTU-MB 873
Per­for­mance	1,100 kW
Pro­tec­tion Lev­el
Bal­lis­tic protection	STANAG 4569 edi­tion 1 annex A/level 4
Mine pro­tec­tion	STANAG 4569 edi­tion 1 annex B/level 3B and 4A
Per­for­mance Data
Max. speed	68 km/h
Fuel capac­i­ty	1,100 l
Gra­di­ent dri­ving abil­i­ty longitudinal	60 %
Gra­di­ent dri­ving abil­i­ty transversal	30 %
Ramp angle front	26°
Ramp angle rear	21°
Climb­ing ability	0.92 m
Trench cross­ing ability	3.0 m
Ford­ing ability	2.25 m
Data source: Rhein­metall Defence