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The first NZLAV platoon has now completed its extensive training and officially rolled out in a mounted parade at 1330 hours in Waiouru today. The 45 crewmen, including drivers, gunners and commanders, trained with the Transition Training Team (TTT) for 17 weeks in Waiouru. Major Mike Duncan of the TTT said, "I am very pleased with the way in that all the soldiers assimilated all the training and I'm very happy with the high standard of the crews." The roll out brings an end to the individual component of the NZLAV crews training where they learnt all they needed to...

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...

The U.S. Army's newest armored vehicle, the Stryker, is plagued with problems and fraught with dangers for crewmen, say military watchdogs and other organizations who have examined the wheeled vehicle's performance record. Also, critics and analysts have questioned the Defense Department's procurement of the vehicle as well as the Pentagon's decision to build it, adding the military has ignored warnings about the Stryker's perceived vulnerability and overall survivability in combat. According to an analysis by the Project On Government Oversight, or POGO, one of the Pentagon's own testing officials sent the defense agency a letter warning the $3 million-per-copy Stryker...

Tacoma News Tribune December 22, 2003 Stryker Crews Find New Vehicles Can Take A Punch By Michael Gilbert, The News Tribune SAMARRA, Iraq - Like many soldiers in the Stryker brigade, the crew of Charlie 1-4 had their worries about how their vehicle would hold up if it were struck by a roadside bomb. Count them as big believers in the Stryker after their encounter with an improvised explosive device on a dirt street a week ago. "If it had been a Humvee, we'd all be dead," said Sgt. 1st Class Mike Farnum, the senior man aboard Charlie 1-4 when...

OTTAWA (CP) - Canada is buying 60 new combat vehicles to provide the battlefield gunfire once delivered by tanks, even though the army concluded five years ago that the armoured Stryker was a bad choice. Defence Minister John McCallum will announce the multi-million-dollar purchase Wednesday, sources said. The Stryker is an eight-wheeled, 18-tonne, lightly armoured vehicle equipped with a 105-mm cannon. The United States is buying 2,100 of them in various variants, from GM Defence is London, Ont., and General Dynamics Land Systems in Michigan. The Americans named the vehicle after two of their Medal of Honour winners. It's not...