12 FANYs were invited to Supacat in Devon for a day of briefing and driving training.
Communications Officer
On Friday 2 June, 12 members of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry were invited to Supacat in Devon for a day of briefing and driving training.
Supacat is a proudly British SME and previous winners of the Queens Award for Export. They have been designing and developing high mobility all-terrain (HMT) vehicles for the UK and overseas Defence Forces since the 1980’s. With over 1,000 tactical vehicles in service around the world the public probably best recognise their HMT platform, Jackal and Coyote models from press coverage of recent conflict situations.
Toby Cox, ex Royal Engineer and Head of Sales, gave a fascinating tour of the engineering floor and briefed the team on the history, impact and aspirations of the company. A lively discussion was held as he fielded questions ranging from how they are using and adapting to remote operation and automation, hybrid and alternative fuel supplies, supporting/developing local skills and regional levelling up, the impact of the conflict in the Ukraine, the focus on protecting lives and the versatility of their latest ‘grown up Lego’ vehicles that is seeing a number of exciting developments in the pipeline including armoured ambulance capability.
But when it came down to it members were very keen to know ‘how fast does it go’! Under careful instruction from the Supacat’s own ‘Stigs’ Nigel and Iain, members of the Corps were treated to a fast-paced tour of the test track in a Jackal before being let behind the wheel themselves. A lot of dust, mud and a brief three wheel ‘hanging’ moment as one member (ok me!) failed to get over one of the near vertical ‘humps’ (with much giggling by onlookers) we all finished the day with broad ‘Supacat smiles’.
We left not only having identified the secret speed junkies among us, but with a much better understanding of how to adapt to the challenges of serious off roading. Before we returned to London, we took a moment to nod to our Corps history as we remembered those pioneering women driving ambulances in the First World War, what they would have swapped for one of these!
We had an amazing and informative day and would like to thank the Supacat team for their continued support of the Corps. We are all still smiling.