How is Oshkosh helping its clients to improve their firefighting capabilities and other emergency response services?
Jack Bermingham: Our customers have a duty to the public to maintain a safe airfield and require the best, most reliable tools to achieve this. Oshkosh Corporation’s mission is to partner with our customers to deliver superior solutions that safely and efficiently allow airfields to operate.
Oshkosh Recently launched our new Striker 8×8 aircraft rescue and firefighting vehicle, which has twin Scania engines and twin Allison transmissions available with up to 1,440hp. The two power packs are coupled together with the Oshkosh-designed power uniter. The vehicle can carry unmatched amounts of agent, equipment and personnel, providing a level of capability that requires no compromises when configuring.
Oshkosh offers clients a diverse set of security and safety-related technologies; how can these be used to improve an airport’s safety and security, including its ground fleet?
We consider safety and security to be a multifaceted concept within the airfield. The Oshkosh Striker’s duty is to protect the travelling public from potential aircraft and airfield fire emergencies.
The Oshkosh snow product line’s duty is to ensure runways are clear of snow and ice during airfield winter events. The range achieves its core duties and has an unmatched level of performance. The multifaceted concept also considers the operators of our equipment. The safety of those operating mission-critical equipment is essential for ensuring all are well. The safety of the operators is increased through safety features, interlocks and the vehicles’ ergonomic layouts.
How does your company’s ECO EFP system save airport clients’ money and help the environment?
Oshkosh’s ECO EFP system is a new technology for us that allows operators of our Striker family of vehicles to test the accuracy of their foam-proportioning system, without discharging foam. ECO EFP passes water instead of foam through the proportioning system to give operators the assurance that their vehicle is performing as intended. The system requires no additional off-vehicle equipment to allow a seamless and simplistic user experience.
Firefighting foam will always be a requirement to ensure firefighters have the proper tools to keep the public safe. Minimising the amount of firefighting foam discharged for training and testing purposes will greatly help the environment. ECO EFP is a tool that provides a great user experience, while achieving the goal of minimising the amount of foam discharged on an airfield.
How does Oshkosh ensure its ageing fleets perform reliably without sacrificing their performance?
Oshkosh Corporation has been building heavy-duty trucks for over 100 years. It is what we do. We pride ourselves on having vehicles that are still being used for front-line service that were manufactured three, four or sometimes five decades ago.
We credit the vehicle’s reliability to the people we have in our team throughout our entire corporation. Each vehicle is meticulously designed, manufactured, assembled, tested, sold and supported by a team of individuals who, at their core, want our customers to succeed.
How is Oshkosh using purpose-built designs to offer clients new technologies or the chance to adapt older platforms to newer modifications?
The Oshkosh Striker and Oshkosh snow vehicle product lines are all custom, purpose-built designs with specific missions in mind. The vehicles have components, widgets, and materials that are all painstakingly designed and selected for the application. Oshkosh Corporation leverages the best design practices and technologies from the wide variety of markets it serves, and channels these technologies into all of its products.
