Home > Defence Equipment News > GDELS Awarded PoBo Development Contract

GDELS Awarded PoBo Development Contract

General Dynamics European Land Systems – Bridge Systems is developing a floating platform for civil protection and disaster relief.

 

Press Release, 17 January 2019: General Dynamics European Land Systems-Bridge Systems (GDELS-Bridge Systems) announced that it has been awarded a contract to develop a multifunctional, modular floating platform known as Pontoon Boat, or PoBo.

 

The project was awarded under the Innovation Programme for the Support of Diversification Strategies of Defence Companies in Civil Security Technologies, or DIVERS. DIVERS is a program launched by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy (BMWI), with VDI Technologiezentrum GmbH as the responsible project executing agency.

 

“The PoBo is a modularly configurable floating device,” said Sascha Wahlster, head of civil activities for GDELS-Bridge Systems. “It can be used to assemble heavy-duty transport, working, diving and recovery platforms or bridges.”

“By means of specially developed propulsion systems and supported by drone based underwater sensors, safe, semi-autonomous driving in flooded and unmapped areas will be made possible,” said Wahlster.

 

The PoBo will be developed to be ergonomically friendly, and will have a mobile virtual reality system to conduct fast and cost-effective training.

GDELS-Bridge Systems, the market leader in military floating bridges is a part of the newly established General Dynamics European Land Systems–Deutschland. The company, which employs 400 people, has been developing and producing these systems in Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate, for 65 years.

You may also like
Rheinmetall Acquires Dutch Startup REEQ
Startical Selects NanoAvionics and GOMspace Satellites
Joint NATO Open Skies Training Mission Over UK
First US Marine Corps F-35B Landing in Sweden