J & S Franklin will be exhibiting DefenCell, a lightweight earth / sand filled protection system at Warrior Expo East, which is being held on 12-13 July 2012 at Virginia Beach Convention Center, Virginia Beach. See us at Stand 901.
DefenCell is a strong and durable, compact and lightweight perimeter and force protection defence system, which can be rapidly deployed and filled using locally available material, be that sand, dirt or rocks.
Being up to ten times lighter and five times more compact than gabions, it uses less supply chain resources and therefore is more effectively deployed to forward positions. As all components are lightweight, man portable, and with modular packaging, it also offers considerable savings to storage and transportation costs.
A single 20ft military container of DefenCell can be used to construct one 100-man forward operating base with walls over 2.50m high and 600m perimeter (150m long x 150m wide). A single pallet of DefenCell weight less than 350kg, providing sufficient units to build a 2m-high wall more than 40m long. An equivalent wire based defensive wall would weigh 1,400kg.
DefenCell is currently on operational deployment in Afghanistan with the British Army, where it is protecting two highly vulnerable ammunition supply points in two separate locations at Camp Bastion in Helmand province and Kandahar Airport in Chad, with the Irish Defence Force, and a number of US bases. It is deployed in facilities and force protection roles in the UK and Italy where it continues to meet the exacting requirements of operational troop and equipment protection in hostile environments.