USACE (Vicksburg District) provides update on ARMOR 1

The new Mat Sinking Unit, ARMOR 1, has been a long-anticipated project for the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). On Tuesday, USACE Vicksburg District provided a small update on the project.

“Last week, crews installed ARMOR 1’s first engine in Lockport, Louisiana! The vessel is the first of its kind and will use cutting edge robotics to complete its revetment mission. ARMOR 1 will revolutionize work on the river like never before,” read a post on social media from USACE (Vicksburg District).

The new unit will replace the Corps’ old Mat sinking Unit once deployed into the Mississippi River. The new system will not only greatly increase the speed of future revetment operations, but remove a lot of the dangers associated with the task.

“The current process is hazardous, manually-intensive, and tedious. It includes cranes that are manually operated to grab rows of concrete pads from the supply barge and place them on the manufacturing barge. A group of workers just under the cranes help position the pads correctly with crowbars. Another group of workers operate tying devices that attach the pads to the steel wires to create a mattress of connected concrete pads. This process puts the workers at a risk for injuries,” states National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC).