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employed former U.S. Army equipment to cross the Suez Canal in their counterattack

into Egypt during the Yom Kippur War of 1973.

EWK further developed the EFA system into the M2 "Alligator" Amphibious Bridging

Vehicle equipped with fold-out aluminum flotation pontoons, which was produced from
1967 to 1970 and sold to the West German, British and Singapore militaries. The M2

was followed by the revised M3 version, entering service in 1996 with Germany, Britain,
Taiwan and Singapore. The M3 was used in combat by British Forces during the Iraq

War. More recently, Turkey has developed a similar system in the FNSS Samur wheeled
amphibious assault bridge, while the Russian PMM-2 and Chinese GZM003 armoured

amphibious assault bridge ride on tracks.

A similar amphibious system, the Mobile Floating Assault Bridge-Ferry (MFAB-F) was

developed in the U.S. by Chrysler between 1959 and 1962. As with the French EFA, the

MFAB-F consisted of an amphibious truck with a rotating bridge deck section, but there
were no outboard flotation sponsons. The MFAB-F was first deployed by the U.S. Army

in 1964 and later by Belgium. An improved version was produced by FMC from 1970 to
1976. The MFAB-F remained in service into the early 1980s before being replaced by a

simpler continuous pontoon or "ribbon bridge" system.

3.12. RIBBON FLOAT BRIDGES

In the early Cold War period the Soviet Red Army began development of a new kind of

continuous pontoon bridge made up of short folding sections or bays that could be
transported and deployed rapidly, automatically unfold in the water, and quickly be

assembled into a floating bridge of variable length. Known as the PMP Folding Float

Bridge, it was first deployed in 1962 and subsequently adopted by Warsaw Pact
countries and other client states employing Soviet military equipment. The PMP proved

its viability in combat when it was used by Egyptian forces to cross the Suez Canal in
1973. Operation Badr, which opened the Yom Kippur War between Egypt and Israel,

involved the erection of at least 10 pontoon bridges to cross the Canal. Beginning in

1969 the U.S. Army Mobility Equipment Research and Development Command
(MERADCOM) reverse-engineered the Russian PMP design to develop the Improved

Float Bridge (IFB), later known as the Standard Ribbon Bridge (SRB). The IFB/SRB

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