USA to Buy 1,930 Self-Protection Adaptive Roller Kit System IIs

While facing the continuous thread of IEDs(Improvised Exclusive Device) in Afghanistan USA is acquiring Self-Protection Adaptive Roller Kit System IIs (SPARKS IIs).

The Pentagon is going to buy 1,930 Pearson Engineering's Self-Protection Adaptive Roller Kit System IIs (SPARKS IIs), which will have a mine-roller capability that attaches to the front of armored vehicles, and will soon field them in Afghanistan.

The Self-Protection Adaptive Roller Kit (SPARK) is a  mine roller system which was designed to be attached on tactical wheeled platforms. The front roller consists of 2 roller banks on the left and right side of the vehicle, providing contact with the ground, causing IEDs to detonate on the roller. This forced as much of the blast down and away from the vehicle as possible, as opposed to underneath the vehicle.

Before SPARK, there was no mine roller kit available to Soldiers for a tactical wheeled vehicle platform.

In February 2009, an IED Roller Interface Bracket prototype for the RG-33 MRAP vehicle passed a fit test. In February just months after engineers and employees at Tobyhanna Army Depot started working on the project. The system allowed the fitting of the Self-Protection Adaptive Roller Kit (SPARK) to the RG-33 series of vehicles. Additionally, an improved SPARK, which was fielded to Afghanistan in January and Iraq in March, was developed, which included an additional third roller bank. The SPARK had been further improved for the Afghanistan terrain by allowing the driver to control the roller banks.

Source: 1.   Janes Defence
            2.   Global Security