North Wales firm ships £18m military roadway to Turkey

Largest-ever order allows Anglesey company to invest in new facilities and product R&D

North Wales manufacturer Faun Trackway has completed its largest-ever order – an £18 million contract for portable aluminium roadways for the Turkish military.

Faun won the bid in partnership with vehicle maker Iveco which supplied Trakker 8x8 trucks on which the roadway will be mounted. The Turkish army will use the vehicles and roadway to improve ground mobility and access to bridgeheads.

Faun's Heavy Ground Mobility System can take vehicle loads of more than 70 tonnes over challenging conditions such as snow, ice, sand, marsh and mud. Securing the order for the system enabled the company to expand its facilities and invest in further product research and development work.

The company says that 50m of the roadway can be laid by two men in less than 6 minutes. Training has been delivered by a team from Faun at a purpose-built test site in Kirklareli, Turkey. The Turkish military has been using products from the Anglesey-based company for more than 20 years.

Chris Kendall, business development manager at Faun Trackway, said: “By forming the partnership with Iveco, we were able to provide the Turkish army with a complete mobility system through a single provider.

“This kind of collaborative approach ensures that we can deliver a bespoke product through what is inevitably a more efficient procurement route for the customer.”

The firm also makes helicopter landing mats, portable runways and rapid runway repair systems for bomb-damaged airfields.

Faun developed its first Trackway products for use by the Royal Engineers more than 40 years ago and the company remains a prime contractor to the UK’s Ministry of Defence. Its products are used by more than 40 armed forces worldwide.