What do Switzerland and Quatar have in common? They are both small countries that nevertheless have a modern and well-organised army. Furthermore, both armed forces have chosen Dieci telehandlers to enhance their logistical capabilities.

THE SWISS ARMY CHOSES APOLLO

It’s a little known fact that Switzerland, despite being a neutral state, has a small but highly trained army that has effectively deterred any aggression down the centuries of Europe’s turbulent history.
Today the Schweizer Armee has expanded its mandate beyond national defence to provide support to the country’s population in the event of natural disasters, as well as participating in international peacekeeping missions on behalf of both the UN and the OSCE.
In order to carry out its duties, the small Armee needed to procure machinery as technologically advanced as that of the major superpowers. This search for quality led to ARBOR AG of Boll, DIECI dealer for Switzerland, which in 2016 was awarded a contract to supply 93 Apollo telehandlers to the Swiss Federal Army.

The CEO of Arbor, Andreas Stettler, was understandably delighted: “We are pleased because with this victory we have secured the role of leader in the Swiss market. Our close cooperation with the Italian manufacturer was crucial to our success in the tender process, due to the volume of documentation required.”
The chosen vehicle is the Apollo, one of DIECI’s smallest telescopic handlers, which fulfils the exact requirements stated in the tender notice:

• highly manoeuvrable and compact
• it can operate easily in tight spaces
• with a maximum load of 2.5 tonnes and a lifting height of up to 6 metres

It is also sturdily built, thanks to the use of Swedish steel, which contributes to a reliable and impact-resistant vehicle with a particularly long service life.

The vehicle has also been adapted to the army’s needs and customised according to their specifications.

FIND OUT WHY DIECI VEHICLES ARE CHOSEN BY CIVIL PROTECTION AGENCIES AND ARMED FORCES

A ROTARY TELEHANDLER FOR THE ARMED FORCES OF QATAR

Qatar is the United States’ main economic and military partner in the Persian Gulf, and is home to the largest military and logistics base in the entire area. The country’s collaboration with the U.S. dates back to the first Gulf war in the early ’90’s, in which Qatari marines and Armed Forces repelled an invasion of Iraqi troops.
Since 2013, the small but technologically advanced Qatari Army (numbering just 150,000 men), has been expanding its logistics network in order to harmonise it with that of the U.S. The deployment of an intervention force (even a small one) requires an organization capable of moving considerable quantities of material in just a few hours: armaments, fuel, food, medical and electronic equipment, everything needed to enable the military to operate, must be collected and transported, in the shortest possible time, to the designated destinations in the right order of priority. For this reason, the Armed Forces are being equipped with the very best the market can offer in terms of materials handling and storage, notably two Pegasus 50.21 rotary telehandlers.

A TELEHANDLER SUITABLE FOR ARMED FORCES

Apart from their military livery, the two Pegasus vehicle are completely standard machines, with characteristics perfectly suited to their assigned tasks: large load capacity, plenty of power and lifting capacity, simple to use and maintain, ultra-reliable, and with all the equipment necessary to operate in safety and comfort in the harsh climate of Doha, where, for six months of the year, the temperature can reach (and even exceed) 42 degrees!

• 360° rotation
• automatic inversion of drive controls
• self-levelling outriggers (making it easy to position the vehicle on uneven terrain)
• the adaptive stability control system (which enables the vehicle to work safely in all conditions of boom extension by adapting the machine’s working area accordingly)
• and compact dimensions

These characteristics make this rotary telehandler the ideal vehicle for intensive applications such as logistics, where you need to operate with great precision and to tight schedules, while maintaining the versatility and capacity for rapid adaptation to the unpredictable situations typical of a military context.