By Jason S. Darley
After nearly 100 years of producing a multitude of fire trucks for the North American and global fire apparatus markets, Darley has taken a new focus and has been working diligently on a rebranding and refocusing of what has historically been known and referred to as our Fire Apparatus, or simply, Apparatus Division. The company has increased our focus on specific vehicle classes, based on years of solid customer feedback and demand for the high quality and highly capable line of vehicles historically known as our WASP™ series platform. The WASP series is being re-invented, expanded, and re-branded as the WS Tactical Pumper™.
The enhanced WS Tactical Pumper line will be available spanning many performance categories and models. The performance and capabilities range from Darley’s pumping system offerings from Odin™ self-contained Compressed Air Foam Systems (CAFS) integrated with a utility style Badger™ body, built from Darley and Pro-Poly’s jointly-owned PolyBilt™ Division, to 1,500-gallon per minute (gpm) midship pumps equipped with Darley’s AUTOCAFS™ modules and PolyBilt bodies in similar offerings to the traditional WASP.
The WS Tactical Pumper series is available on both the Ford™ F-550 and International™ CV chassis platforms. While the WS Tactical Pumper has been a focal point for the division, it is one of many areas the company has decided to increase our focus and invest our core competencies and research and development resources within the Darley Tactical Division.
A number of products in the historic Darley lineup, such as pump trailers, pump modules, and UTV (utility terrain vehicle) and ULTV (ultra light terrain vehicle) based products, will be offered through and produced within the Tactical Division. Darley’s Tactical Division has focused on some exciting new offerings that have been on the drawing board and will be produced and developed by the Tactical Division.
Darley has always married successful products from our multiple operating divisions to continue to lead the way in innovation in the fire service and fire apparatus as a whole. This innovation has been expanded to include a focus on products incorporating Darley’s Unmanned Systems and Robotics Division (USMR) Division, in addition to the Pump Division, Odin Foam Division, and PolyBilt, as a part of the innovation plans and new products the Darley Tactical Division will be releasing in the future.
Deliveries of the first WS Tactical Pumper are scheduled to begin in the Spring of 2023 with demo tours planned to hit the streets in the Summer of 2023.
While we continue to renew our innovative focus with the WS Tactical Pumper, we also have an eye on increasing our footprint in strategic markets, as well as in building new strategic partnerships supporting the Tactical Division product lines, and growing existing distribution relationships that we have as a company in our Pump, Equipment, and other Darley divisions.
For more information on the WS Tactical Pumper, Darley’s Tactical Division, dealer inquiries or any other opportunities for Darley to serve, please feel free to reach out to Jason Darley at JasonDarley@Darley.com or at (715) 456-9390.
Jason S. Darley is North American sales manager for W.S. Darley & Company.
