EADS Adds Thais as TransHospital Customers
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Shipping containers are ubiquitous in a globalized world, and many modes of transport on air, sea, and land are adapted to carry them easily. To portability, add protection: their rigid metal construction provides more shielding than tent fabric, and this can be augmented by digging the structure in slightly or putting up Hesco-type instafill walls nearby. A number of manufacturers have thrown in a 3rd advantage: modular flexibility, created by making it easy to connect containerized modules and deploy the exact combination you need.
Military and para-public medical facilities are natural fits with these advantages, and EADS’ innovative TransHospital leverages all of them. Now, the Thai government will become a customer, giving them a transportable field hospital for military or disaster-related use…
The system to be delivered to the Royal Thai Air Force has the capacity to treat 5 in-patients and 10 out-patients at the same time, and capacity can be increased if the staff accommodation for 10 persons is used for patients instead. The TransHospital rescue station with staff accommodation comprises 2 large tents, a rescue container, a connection module, a water and power supply container and a transport container. All of these modules are air-conditioned to cope with ambient temperatures ranging from – 32 to 55 degrees Celsius, using efficient air-conditioning systems specifically developed by EADS Defence Electronics. TransHospital can be transported by truck, train or vessel, and Thailand’s system can also be transported in a C-130 Hercules medium tactical transport aircraft. Delivery of the system is scheduled for the spring of 2010. EADS release.
TransHospital has been sold to the German Bundeswehr, and impressed the hard-to-impress Singaporeans enough to make them customers as well. TransHospital has been used during several international disasters, including Indonesia’s tsunami and Hurricane Katrine in the USA, and is being evaluated for the USA’s Future Medical Shelter System requirement.
