Storage, Transport and Distribution of Fuel and Potable Water for ‘Out-of-Area’ Missions

For many decades, tank containers have been used very successfully in international civilian road, rail and waterway transportation of liquids and gases. They fit perfectly into the worldwide logistics environment that was fundamentally changed by the triumphant arrival of the box container in the late 1960s. In the last 10 years worldwide container traffic has tripled - and the container hubs and infrastructure supporting it have mushroomed everywhere.

Westerwälder Eisenwerk (WEW) based in Weitefeld, Germany, has focused on the development and production of tank containers for nearly 40 years. With this wealth of experience, the company extended its expertise into the manufacture of special containers and systems for the transportation, storage and distribution of hazardous liquids and gases, and is now a world leader is this field.

Intermodal military logistics

In 1996, when German Armed Forces’ responsibilities expanded from homeland defence to international peacekeeping, WEW responded by meeting their intermodal military liquid logistics needs. In close collaboration with the Bundeswehr, WEW began by addressing fuel and water supply for the German field camp concept, developing a family of tank containers mostly based on the ISO 20 foot standard container dimensions. Increasingly, the company has also teamed up with other international defence customers.

With 1,600 international approvals and an impressive number of patents, WEW has proved the advantages of the tank container concept, which is well accepted by the international logistics companies, driven by the enthusiastic support of the chemical and food industries.

Fully mission equipped

Various container concepts have been established as a key element in combat logistical support and have already proven themselves on military missions. Since 1998 the German Bundeswehr bought more than 200 WEW tank containers for potable water, equipped with effective insulation, heating devices, pressure increasing systems and partial chlorination units, UV-radiation units and their own power supplies. These systems, as well over 40 fuel transport and storage containers, have proven their value and reliability on missions in the Balkans and Afghanistan over the past 10 years.

So it is not surprising that since 2001 the US Army has taken an interest in the German approach. After successful long term testing, the Americans selected WEW, and its US partner MMC, to deliver the Multi Water Tank Container System HIPPO (2,000 US gallons = 7.5 m3/hookarm) of which an impressive number have been produced since 2006. Prior to this, the Belgian Army opted for WEW´s water and fuel intermodal supply systems. Other customers have been the Lithuanian, Slovenian and Irish armed forces, with the UK MOD now joining them in their choice.

Military customers, especially, require a high standard of security and performance -like the ability to operate tank containers in temperatures between -40° and +50°C. As WEW’s experience includes tank containers for research stations in the Antarctic, special containers for the handling of the highly sensitive propellant for the European ARIANE missile programme, and radioactive fluids, the engineers, production team and management of the company feel comfortable about meeting the high military standards.

WEW will continue to develop its technology and its role in meeting a very special intermodal military market niche.

WEW Westerwälder Eisenwerk GmbH
Ringstrasse 65a
D-57586 Weitefeld
Germany
Tel: +49 (0) 2743 - 9222-0 
Fax: +49 (0) 2743 - 3411
www.wew.de