Heavy Metal Task Force

Trucks link together to help reinforce South Africa's electrical grid. Drilling a new subway tunnel without disturbing the city needs an extraordinary machine, and the US Coast Guard's largest cutter is equipped for any scenario.

A giant front loader keeps a copper mine moving. An all-terrain amphibious vehicle helps the Royal Marines handle any terrain, climate or enemy, and the world's largest moving machine feeds a power plant's appetite for coal.

A massive dredger gets the Big Apple ready for the world's largest ships. A next-generation fire engine employs an arsenal of state-of-the-art firefighting tools, and a mile-long rail layer can build a railroad on the move.

The world's most fearsome dredger races to deepen the Panama Canal. A telescopic demolition rig devastates a building in the heart of Amsterdam, and a multi-purpose helicopter has been updated for the 21st-century battlefield.

A heavy-lift ship delivers one of the largest pieces of cargo ever. A transport installs a radio telescope in the highest and driest desert on Earth, and walking diggers race to fix flood damage before bad weather strikes again.

The largest marine crane in Asia assembles oil rigs right in Singapore's harbor. A fearsome tunnel borer chews up rock just beneath a Slovenian village, and slag haulers risk their lives carrying 50-ton loads of molten metal.

A revolutionary helicopter helps prevent avalanches at the Winter Olympics. A massive dredger builds up the Netherlands' defenses before winter storms hit, and a monster lift assembles a bridge over the Danube.

A 10,000 horsepower super-tug steers tankers away from disaster in Alaska. A mammoth crane builds itself before taking on even bigger jobs, and massive hard-rock shovels pull copper out of the world's driest desert.