Underground Switchgear joins service.(News)

The U.S. Air Force and Army have jointly developed a lightweight electrical power system that can be transported by air to serve provisional bases. The engineering contractor for the new Deployable Power Generation and Distribution System chose S&C Vista Under ground Distribution Switchgear for primary switching and secondary distribution. The Vista UDS is easy to operate and requires minimal training of ever-changing military personnel. The SF6-insulated Vista LIDS is small and lightweight, so it's ideally suited for airlifting.

The Air Force and Army wanted switchgear that could be stacked two-high to save space aboard airplanes and in storage. They also specified a special steel skid for permanently mounting the gear. The skid would be integral with the enclosure, serving as both a pad and lifting support.

The gear would need to pass the MIL Spec E-810 20-hour shaker-table vibration test, verifying that stacked units could withstand 10,000 miles of travel aboard military aircraft. It would also need to pass tests verifying that switchgear performance is not affected after the gear has been subjected to low pros sure at an altitude of 40,000 feet.

Numerous enclosure design changes would be needed to meet these requirements. But all the unique features of Vista UDS had to be retained.

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