WFEL, supplier of rapidly-deployable military bridging, had the privilege of welcoming this week Brigadier Ed Smeaton – Director General Land Manoeuvre Systems of the Australian Department of Defence – to their defence manufacturing facilities.
Brigadier Smeaton’s organisation, which is part of the Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group, is responsible for the acquisition and through-life support of a wide range of land-based capabilities required by the Australian Defence Force (ADF), including bridging.
Brigadier Smeaton was delighted to be shown around WFEL’s production facility, which is currently supplying a number of its Dry Support Bridges (DSB) and Medium Girder Bridges (MGB) to the ADF under the Land 155 Phase 1 Enhanced Gap Crossing Capability project.
The Brigadier was also keen to discover more about WFEL’s wider technical capabilities within the defence sector, and to see the latest developments across a full range of rapidly-deployable bridging products.
As a long-standing user of WFEL’s MGB bridges since the 1970’s, the ADF has recently taken delivery of their first new sets of WFEL’s rapidly-deployable bridging systems, and the Brigadier was keen to observe the technical operations behind the manufacture of these bridges.
After having been shown around the facilities by WFEL’s Managing Director, Ian Anderton, Brigadier Smeaton commented, “My visit today was extremely informative and your team were both passionate and engaging. It was a particularly good opportunity to understand the design and complexity that goes into the manufacturing of your bridging products. As a customer and user, it was reassuring to see the level of testing and quality assurance completed at each stage in the process.”
Ian Anderton added, ‘We are extremely proud to have supplied our Australian customer with a world-leading set of bridging systems and we look forward to developing further our ongoing relationship”.
