British firm WFEL has signed a contract with the Irish Defence Forces for the supply of the MGB Medium Girder Bridging System.

The Irish Defence Forces have chosen the 31m double-storey MGB variant, which can be erected in various configurations to cover the full range of military and emergency bridging requirements and will be supplied complete with handrails, making the system adaptable for use not only during military operations but also in Disaster Relief and Emergency scenarios, such as the severe flooding situations seen in Europe recently.

“The Irish Military have been users of WFEL’s MGB Medium Girder Bridging System since the late 1970s and are therefore already familiar with the many benefits of this versatile, modular bridging system.  The Corps of Engineers – military engineering branch of the Defence Forces of Ireland – will take delivery of the new MGB bridging.  The Corps is responsible for combat engineering and construction engineering services, providing engineering on the battlefield and has successfully leveraged its skill and expertise in several of the Irish Army‘s deployments on United Nations operations.”

Colonel Damian McEvoy, Director of Engineering for the Irish Defence Forces, said:

“As long-time users of the Medium Girder Bridge system, we are already familiar with its many benefits and, by updating our bridging assets with the latest version of the MGB, we will continue to be equipped with the most versatile, modular bridging system available, allowing our Engineering Division to rapidly react to situations both on and off the battlefield.

Of particular importance to us is the lightweight nature of the MGB system, not only for reducing transportation weight, but to enable the bridge components to be handled by our troops without the need for mechanical aids.”

The firm say that with over 500 systems already supplied to militaries around the world, the MGB modular military bridging system provides interoperability with any other MGB of any age and is already adopted by many NATO members.

A full support and training package is included in the contract and the Irish Defence Forces can expect delivery of their new bridging assets by the end of 2023.

WFEL is currently supplying 17 Sets of its MGB Medium Girder Bridges to the UK MoD, following a review of the MoD’s modular gap crossing capabilities, which aimed to draw together existing in-service capabilities into a single coherent capability.  One of the key criteria for this contract was the fact that the MGB system can be configured in several different ways to provide flexibility to the Commander on the ground.

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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18 COMMENTS

  2. OK, curiosity piqued; purpose of bridging equipment for a non-expeditionary, non-aligned military? Humanitarian deployments? Natural disaster preparedness?

    • They do a lot with the UN, and suspect that when in Lebanon they probably did a bit of bridging out there. It is also a useful asset as you ask for in-country humanitarian ops

      • Mark,
        Ive built many an MGB and ive seen (or heard) of very few used in the humanitarian role simply due to the very high ramp at either end, (which is why there is usually a bloke guiding vehicles onto the bridge (If double storey) For the humanitarian role the bridge of choice favoured by most is the World War 2 Bailey Bridge which is what the Irish army used in 2107 when a bridge was swept away in Co Donegal.

        The main reason is down to how the MGB is made out of a lightweight (still bloody heavy thou) alloy which can be damaged due to bumps, the Bailey bridge (Much, much heavier) is made out steel , is squaddie proof, has no ramp (as such) and cheaper. (the decking of the MGB is made out of the same stuff as the bridge, on a Bailey Bridge it is woodern spars)

          • HGOB can be done by hand, but we always used a crane.

            As for MGB, by the book you are meant to have a full troop with seperate teams of 4 men for top and bottom panels. Never seen it happen, (other than when teaching YO and Sapper courses) with usually the same 4 blokes doing both and in some cases working both sides.

        • Yeah they mainly work with Bailey type Bridges, interviewed one of the DF engineers a few years ago that had just finished sticking one up for training.

    • Yes. Both. I still remember the metal military bridge that my father had to pass everyday to go to work and me to school after a river flood took a small stone bridge in our route, the metal bridge stood there for more 10 years until the route was diverted. In 80’s Portugal.

    • Very useful stuff to have around.

      Very capable and much more durable that you would imagine.

      There was a Callender-Hamilton bridge from the 1950’s that crossed the Thames atWalton for decades and it was only finally removed in about 2013.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walton_Bridge

      Very handy for disaster relief. I would imagine that it is the kind of thing the Pakistanis would love to have with all their bridges washed out ATM.

      Whilst Ireland is pretty useless at offence or defence they do make a serious and worthwhile ongoing contribution to UN humanitarian and peace keeping efforts. Their guys tend to be on the more civilised end of the spectrum to work with…..ah herm…..

    • Nah they are too busy trying to get their drugs in, one of the main reasons why they kicked off last year was because more shipments were being caught due to the increased checks.

  5. I am surprised that many places even in the remoter parts of the UK (e.g the Highlands) do not have Bailey type bridges for light traffic given that it seems to cost billions every time we stick a shovel in the ground ….

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