Shoulda just dug the latrine pit and left it at that...
Posted on 06/10/2004 4:45:00 PM PDT by Vetvoice
The controversial Lav3 light armoured vehicle is understood to have caused a multimillion-dollar army budget blowout, while pictures fresh from the battlefields of Iraq graphically expose the vehicle's shortcomings.
Note: This story is accompanied by extensive imagery of the Lav3 suffering massive damage under combat conditions. Those photographs are available in the print edition.
Defence sources told The National Business Review the army had sought nearly $40 million extra funding for the Lav3s, a highly sensitive request given the controversial nature of the vehicles' purchase.
The Lav3s, which began service late last year, cost nearly $700 million.
The heated debate over wheels or tracks aside, the 105 Lav3s bought by the government is nearly twice the number of vehicles originally considered necessary in a single purchase.
Army spokesman Ric Cullinane and Ministry of Defence PR man Warren Inkster said they didn't know of the extra funding request.
But NBR understands there is a Lav3 funding paper trail between the army, the Chief of Defence Force Air Marshall Bruce Ferguson, the Ministry of Defence and the Treasury.
Official Information Act requests have been lodged with those parties and Defence Minister Mark Burton seeking all correspondence on the matter.
National Party defence spokesman Simon Power has also submitted a series of written questions on the matter to the minister.
Meanwhile, soldiers in a US Army "Stryker" unit have sent alarming photos of their hapless Lav3s out of Iraq.
The troops are describing the Lav3 as a "widow maker," according to US military analyst Lonnie Shoultz.
The images show the lumbering eight-wheeled vehicles stuck in the mud and in ditches.
New Zealand First defence spokesman Ron Mark said he'd heard stories from New Zealand Army soldiers of the Lav3s getting stuck in the mud during training in Waiouru, then ironically being towed out by the M113 armoured personnel carriers the army chose not to refurbish. The Australian Army chose to spruce up its M113s.
More seriously, the pictures show the Lav3 burning like a roman candle after being struck by rocket-propelled grenades (RPG) and driving over land mines.
Shortly after deployment in Iraq the Lav3 was revealed to be too thin-skinned to survive an RPG or mortar attack.
It has since been fitted with a heavy slatted cage, designed to take the initial brunt of an RPG or mortar explosion.
But this has proved futile, with US troops reporting Lav3s being routinely "lit up" by explosives.
That aside, the cages have made the Lav3 too wide to cross many Iraqi bridges, too big to fit into a C130 Hercules -- the plane they were designed to be transported in -- and about 2300 kg heavier, which considerably decreases their manoeuvrability.
As for landmines, the photos show the Lav3 failing there too.
The Lav3 was designed to be capable of driving away from a landmine explosion which Mr Burton has always maintained was a big advantage of the vehicle.
But the image on page 1 [print edition] shows the "tie rod" on one of the wheels has blown clean away from the undercarriage (inside the blue ring on the photo).
Even without the raging inferno, defence sources said, the vehicle was "not going anywhere on its own."
11-Jun-2004
ping
Other way around. The Stryker is built around an LAV III hull, suspension and drive train. The LAV II was invented first.
Alright now you've confused me. Those systems/versions are the exact same systems/version that the Stryker comes in.
Now either they are one and the same or they arent. I dont see General Dynamics creating two separate armoured vehicle systems that so overlap.
I must still be missing something.
Other than giving credit to which came first, what is the difference between an LAVIII in Canadian service and a Stryker in American service?
Okay now I am starting to get it.
Stryker is the latest in a line of Armoured Vehicles deriving from the Piranha?
Shoulda just dug the latrine pit and left it at that...
Ain't transformation fun?
The turret is the primary difference. automotively they are very similar
Correct.
Sheesh, that thing looks like an unwieldy beast.
More than meets the eye.
Just try to stay out of deep sand and mud.
General Dynamics and the Stryker Brigades would have you think everything is peachy keen with the Stryker. Lonnie Schoultz and Mike Sparks would have you think the Stryker is a POS.
Have you driven one?
Wow! Look at the antennas on that thing! (pick me! pick me!)
Rumor has it that there has been more than one combat refusal to go out the gate in the Stryker.
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