Swedish defense forces Rapid force deployment tent

Swedish armed forces

Sweden being a Scandinavian country with 9 m. citizen and a regular defense force intended for defense and not attack.

SAF has a long history of domestic readiness.

From year 2000 the operation changed character being more active in peace keeping missions abroad.

The material used was to begin with very much the same as in the past.

Swedish armed forces

Logistics Was very much about how-to-get-the-tent-

25km-out-in-the-nearest-forest…. Using different road/terrain vehicles. Weight issue did not matter at all.

Swedish armed forces

Technology The old and proven tent technology did not

cause any major problem for the operators and users.

The tent was VERY ridgid and forgiving to misuse.

Swedish armed forces

The new mission Required something different though.

Swedish armed forces

Technical specifications(fragments) Tent shall; Being able to accomodate 10 persons. Be light weight in order to transport by air. Be possible to erect in less then 10 minutes. Handled by 4 person. Be possible to flatpack in less than 15

minutes.

Swedish armed forces

Possible with the existing tent? For sure not. Possible to find a supplier in Sweden? For sure not. In Europe? For sure not. In the US? Oh, yes, indeed.

Swedish armed forces

Tent manufacture in the US being the company ”Base X Shelter” being part of Drash tents.

Did well meet the requirement from the Swedes.

Was told to attend to the tender issued which they later on won.

Swedish armed forces

The tender was won upon best available pricing on the product.

Not taking the packaging into account at all. The product is delivered onto one way pallet

wrapped in a card board sleeve with lid to create protection towards dust more than to create stackability and/or mechanical protection during handling.

Swedish armed forces

The first 500 tents was delivered from the US to Sweden and thereafter directly to the Scenery with less than 10% transport damages.

After 6-18 months of use in the field the tents was returned to Sweden after sorting out tents needed maintenance on site.

The quality rejects upon arrival was almost 50%.

Swedish armed forces

Each tent has a purchase value of roughly USD K40.

The majority of the quality rejects was traced to either loading(placement of whatever heavy equipment on top) or collision(the part of the tent outside the pallet footprint.

For maintenance there is no workshop in Europe meaning that all rejected tents hase to be shipped to the US back and forth.

Swedish armed forces

With the following fact; Tent USD K40 Freight container shipping cost being USD K4

one way. Handling cost being something. The increased stock due to lack of tents for

the stated readiness being x or maybe z.

Swedish armed forces

Taking all these parameters into consideration, will there then be any incentives to improve the current packaging?

The short answer is yes. One shall however not underestimate the

routes for decisions within the armed forces.

Tactial tent 10

Tactial tent 10

Tactial tent 10

Tactial tent 10

Tactial tent 10

Tactial tent 10

Tactial tent 10

Tactial tent 10

Tactial tent 10

Tactial tent 10

Conclusion

After convincing the SAF to go for the Clip-Lok box they have bought roughly 1500 boxes to a price of USD 450 each.

The overall feedback is that the SAF have reduced the rejects substantial after the CL box has been introduced.

Bear in mind that this is only ONE out of many different tents models in use.