Airborne Combat Engineers - Vehicles
The DINGO
Sunday, December 28, 2003
New Orleans firm building DINGOs
click for uncropped image
The DINGO the Germans are using in Kosovo and in Afghanistan:
In October, Textron Marine & Land Systems of New Orleans signed a license agreement with Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) of Munich to build the German Dingo armored vehicle, which many feel offers the best protection from mines and roadside bombs for its class of armored vehicle.
Like Humvees and the large Stryker armored personnel carriers, the German Dingos run on wheels rather than tracks.
Here are the vehicle's specifications.
The US, not having a true armored wheeled vehicle for patrols, is paying a armored limo company millions to armor-plate Humvees (see earlier post), with only limited effectiveness. An armored vehicle designed from the drawing boards to be an armored vehicle is superior to a retrofitted vehicle.
According to an Israeli source, the Israelis are considering attempting to purchase the German-made Dingo APC for its mechanized infantry units that operate exclusively in the West Bank and Gaza. You know the Israelis would not be considering this unless they really think highly of the vehicle. This would require an exception to German policy. The German manufacturer claims no knowledge of this interest.
KMW also builds an several armord vehicles, including an APC with 8 wheels like the Styrker.
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Maybe we should be buying DINGOs instead of (or in addition to) beefing up Humvees. They cost 3 times as much, but might be worth it considering the better protection against road bombs and biochemicals (something we might yet run into somewhere). And they are only 1/4 the cost of Strykers, with about half the troop carrying capacity. Carrying the same number of troops in 2 vehicles reduces the risk for each soldier.
If we can buy XM-8 rifles produced by H-K in Columbus (GA), surely we can buy Dingos produced by KMW in New Orleans.
I'd hope we'd specify at least shield plates around that MG, though.
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Incidentally, he Dannish in Kosovo are using a 6-wheeled APC which looks more air-transportable than the Stryker:
But, that's another story, for another post.