The EFA or Engin de Franchissement de l'Avant (forward crossing apparatus) is a field-deployable river crossing vehicle, used by
combat engineers in the
French Army
History
Early history
The first permanent army, paid with regular wages, instead of feudal levies, was established under Charles VII of France, Charles VII in the 1420 to 1430s. The Kings of France needed reliable troops during and after the ...
. Unlike a bridge layer, which transports a bridge that is deployed off of the host vehicle, the EFA itself is a combined
pontoon bridge
A pontoon bridge (or ponton bridge), also known as a floating bridge, uses floats or shallow- draft boats to support a continuous deck for pedestrian and vehicle travel. The buoyancy of the supports limits the maximum load that they can carry ...
and
amphibious vehicle
An amphibious vehicle (or simply amphibian), is a vehicle that is a means of transport viable on land as well as on or under water. Amphibious vehicles include amphibious Amphibious cycle, bicycles, Amphibious ATV, ATVs, Amphibious automobile, ca ...
, enabling much more rapid redeployment of the bridge structure and an additional use as a
ferry
A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water ta ...
(at the cost of being useless in returning to service damaged bridges). When needed, multiple EFA's can be combined in a series to create a traditional pontoon bridge. It has been built since 1989 by Chaudronnerie et Forges d'Alsace (CEFA), located in
Soultz-sous-Forêts in the
Bas-Rhin
Bas-Rhin (; Alsatian: ''Unterelsàss'', ' or '; traditional german: links=no, Niederrhein; en, Lower Rhine) is a department in Alsace which is a part of the Grand Est super-region of France. The name means 'Lower Rhine', referring to its lo ...
.
Characteristics
A single EFA, in ferry configuration, has a length of 34.55m on a loading surface of 96
m2 is ready in less than five
minutes for the transportation of up to 70 tons of goods. In one hour it is able to make about 10-12 crossings over a of 100
m length and eight to 10 crossings over a length of 200
m. Two EFA coupled together at the ramp allow the carriage of up to 150 ton cargo, and a floating bridge with four EFA for example offers, in less than 10
minutes, a crossing capacity of 100
m long with an estimated flow of 200 vehicles an hour.
The EFA is capable of
astern propulsion, thus allowing fording without having to reorient the direction of the vehicle to the opposite shore which allows for more fluid ferry operations and rapid bridge assembly.
The crew consists of four people:
* An equipment commander
* A driver
* A pilot
* A crewman
Predecessor
The EFA is the heir to the first self-propelled bridging ferry invented in 1955 by the French military engineer and general Jean Gillois (born in Châteaubriant 1909). Called the "Amphibious Bac" or "Gillois", it entered service with the French army in 1963. A version modified by EWK was successively adopted by the German, British and to a limited extent American militaries, and was used by Israel in the 1973
Yom Kippur War
The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by E ...
. At the time of its introduction it was able to carry vehicles up to a maximum weight of 25 tons and while configured as a bridge it could support loads of about 50 tons. It takes between 45 and 65 minutes to form a bridge 100 meters long. It allows an armed force to avoid the heavy and bulky convoys that barges brought in by road, which are sensitive to enemy attacks.
Users
* : Contract for 10 units of more than 60 million euros signed in 2006 for EFA X1 motorized with Friedrichshafen MTU of 760 hp. Delivery from September 2008
* : 39 units built for the French army since 1989, in active service since 1993. As of December 31, 2013, 30 units were in service with an average age of 25 years.
They are assigned to the following units:
** 3rd engineer regiment,
** 6th engineer regiment,
** 19th engineer regiment,
** School of Engineering,
** Champagne Training Park.
The three EFA sections are theoretically equipped with four groups of two vehicles, i.e. eight EFA per regiment. In practice, by 2014 it would seem that there were only four AETs per regiment, the rest being distributed between the Engineering School, the Training Park and the industrial owner of the conditioning contract.
See also
*
Bailey bridge
A Bailey bridge is a type of portable, pre-fabricated, truss bridge. It was developed in 1940–1941 by the British for military use during the Second World War and saw extensive use by British, Canadian and American military engineering units ...
*
Pontoon bridge
A pontoon bridge (or ponton bridge), also known as a floating bridge, uses floats or shallow- draft boats to support a continuous deck for pedestrian and vehicle travel. The buoyancy of the supports limits the maximum load that they can carry ...
*
Armored vehicle-launched bridge
References
External links
Description pageon the site of the
French Ministry of Defence
{{French Army Vehicle
Military vehicles of France
Portable bridges
Military bridging equipment
Military vehicles introduced in the 1980s