French company CEFA, an independent family-owned company specializing in land systems for military engineers, has recently shown the capabilities of the EFA ferries being prepared for the Ukrainian military.

Pierre Heilbronn, France’s Special Envoy for Ukraine’s Relief and Reconstruction, said he had personally verified their effectiveness.

“I’ve tested their incredible efficiency, for example, they can be deployed in 5 minutes,” said Pierre Heilbronn.

The French company has a contract to supply Ukraine with eight EFA ferries and eight SDZ demining systems from its depots.

EFA is a field-deployable river crossing vehicle that represents a combined pontoon bridge and amphibious vehicle, enabling much more rapid redeployment of the bridge structure and an additional use as a ferry. EFAs can be used as ferries for the transportation of manpower and equipment, and, if necessary, as pontoon bridges as part of several such systems.

The 43-ton, 12.6-meter vehicle is equipped with a turbocharged Baudouin diesel engine developing 730 hp. It is combined with a 6-speed automatic transmission. The amphibious vehicle has permanent four-wheel drive, all four wheels are steerable.

The vehicle has a range of 700 km on land. While it travels at 70 km/h on the road, it can travel at only 12 km/h on water. In one hour, the ferry can make 10-12 crossings of a 100-meter-wide river and 8-10 crossings of a 200-meter-wide river.

It can be used in combination with other EFAs as a floating bridge. One unit has a span of 23.6 meters. Four units can be connected in less than 10 minutes to form a 100-meter-long bridge. The EFA is operated by a crew of four – two drivers, a commander, and an operator.

SDZ

CEFA’s SDZ is a medium-sized Système de Déminage de Zone (zone demining system). To this day, French engineering battalions are equipped with such systems.

The system is resistant to anti-tank mines. For safety, the SDZ is remote controlled visually or from armored or other vehicles equipped with cameras and a GPS system. Its weight with a tiller is 12 T. The clearance width is 2,2m and the capacity is minimum 2000 sqm/h.

The SDZ is especially designed to clear mechanically waste areas or to quickly create safe lanes.

After its use, all types of activities, military or civilian (roads, agriculture) are possible in safe conditions.