Allison Transmission Awarded Red Ball Express Honor

Recently, the Tactical Wheeled Vehicle Division of the National Defense Industrial Association awarded Allison Transmission with its Red Ball Express Award. This award is a sign of acknowledgement honoring a company or person that has a profound impact on the reinforcement of state security by designing, purchasing or maintaining tactical wheeled vehicles.

Nowadays, military forces around across the globe have to operate under different conditions, thus their vehicles must correspond to the highest standards in terms of operation characteristics, quality, and durability. Allison transmissions installed in military vehicles guarantee 100% quality. Allison provides transmission solutions for different types of military vehicles. Thanks to its solid experience in the transmission industry, Allison successfully combines the latest technologies in its solutions. Over the years, Allison has been a reliable partner for the military industry.

Ken Adgie at the ceremony

Ken Adgie, representative of Allison, received the award on the company’s behalf. As a former military officer, Ken knows that a reliable transmission plays a crucial role in operation of military vehicles. Thus, Allison supports numerous military programs to contribute to national security.

The abovementioned award was named in honor of a large truck convoy system that helped Allied forces during the operation in Normandy (during WWII). Back then the relocation of military forces was impeded by fuel shortages. Therefore, military officers came up with the idea to build a special system using red balls to highlight the route. Trucks also were marked with the red balls, thereby they received the priority to use civilian routes to get to fuel quickly, creating the Red Ball Express.

Military Police soldier and sign posted along the Red Ball route

Since 1946, Allison has been actively involved in development and production of gearbox solutions for military vehicles. Thanks to decades of practical experience in this field, Allison engineers know what it takes to develop transmission solutions with maximum efficiency at minimum cost.

It is worth mentioning that recently Allison transmission solutions have been applied in two military vehicles. It refers to Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Trucks (provided by Oshkosh Defense) equipped with the Allison 4500SP 5F/1R automatic transmission and APC vehicles (manufactured by Streit Falcon) where gears are shifted with the help of the Allison-3000 Automatic transmission.