Thread: Canada Serious about replacing Tanks?

Originally Posted by Officer of Engineers

4x4 per sqn. 8CH (PL) has only 1 trp (4 tanks), might be expanded to 2 trps. 1 Bde would want to keep a trp(-) to parade the CO around.

Thanks OOE, Diving, I dont think they plan on doing so, last I heard they were replacing all AV's with the exception of the ones in the above 2 units with the Stryker AFV.

Originally Posted by Diving Falcon

So, will these Tanks take part in Excersizes and Missions abroad?

Another Thing, will the CAF (Canadian Armed Forces) buy New Tanks to replace the last remaining ones?

Who knows. A couple of corrections right off the bat. The Canadian Armed Forces is only referred to once in the Queen's Act of National Defence. The Canadian Forces (CF) is what we normally everyday addressed them to be.

Second the correct designations are Land Force, Maritime Command, and Air Command. In acroynm form CF/LF, CF/MC, and CF/AC.

On exercises, which is entirely within the prevue of DND (Department of National Defence), we can deploy tanks anywhere and everywhere we want. The last exercise was the CANAM Trophy 2003 in the US.

Mission profiles are the responsibility of the Department of Foreign Affairs. They would be the ones authorizing the force levels though today, it is restricted to what DND can offer. The last mission was a Royal Canadian Dragoons Leo C1 trp to KFOR to which the Leo C1s outperformed all wheeled based AT guns.

As for relacement tanks, deals happen everyday. We took the VICTORIAS from the Brits. The US offerred us M1A1s for $1 (ONE DOLLAR) a copy at the end of Kuwait War. We just couldn't afford the operting cost (M1A1s burn 20 gallons of gasoline sitting idle) and thus decline. However, if a similar deal is offerred for the M1A2s, I don't see why we couldn't take advantage.

However, currently, there are no plans to replace the Leo C2s (which should last until 2011-2015) and 2011-2015 is a hell of a long way away.

Originally Posted by ChrisF202

Thanks OOE, Diving, I dont think they plan on doing so, last I heard they were replacing all AV's with the exception of the ones in the above 2 units with the Stryker AFV.

Not quite true. Our LAV-IIIs supercede the Stryker (and with superior packages) and we're not replacing several M113 and LAV-II (Cougar/Lynx/Bison) variants roles - ie (Armoured Engineering Vehicle, Command Post, Ambulence, and Armoured Recovery).

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Army, Maple Leaf, 05 May 2004, Vol. 7 No. 16

Armée, La feuille d'érable, Le 05 mai 2004, Vol. 7 No. 16

Artillery prepares forits transformation
By Paul Mooney

While much of the Army has focused on the Mobile Gun System, Whole Fleet Management and other elements of Transformation, the Artillery has been quietly preparing for its own shift to a more lethal, agile and knowledge-based branch of the all-arms team.

Colonel Bob Gunn, the Director of Artillery, said recently that the new strategic environment and increased emphasis on operations in built-up areas means the Artillery must develop a greater focus on precision and speed.

Keys to the Artillery's transformation include:

Truck platforms for the C3 105mm Howitzers, giving the artillery a “shoot and scoot” capability.

Digitization, which will slash the time it takes to get into action and greatly improve accuracy.

ISTAR, which will bring a major improvement to target acquisition capability.

The Multi-Mission Effects Vehicle, part of the planned Direct Fire System, which will feature a supersonic missile with pinpoint accuracy and a range of eight kilometres.

Col Gunn, who also serves as Director of Land Requirements, explained that the artillery will move to truck-mounted C3 Howitzers for many of the same reasons that the Army is moving from Leopard C2s to a new Direct Fire System.

Cold War legacy

“The M-109s are something of a Cold War legacy,” Col Gunn said in a recent interview. “They’re heavy, tracked, difficult to move around and don’t go overseas—much like the Leopard. We have to acquire something more modern, lighter and deployable.”

The C3 will be the artillery’s principal gun, allowing it to have a common system for both Regular and Reserve units and just one main set of spare parts, training manuals, courses, etc.

Mobile Artillery Gun System

The artillery plans to mount its C3, currently in service with the Army Reserve, on the medium-weight truck which will replace the MLVW. This Mobile Artillery Vehicle System (MAVS) will deploy with LAV Fire Effects Vehicles forward. The Fire Effects Vehicles will lase and otherwise assist in identifying targets and will be integrated into the ISTAR network.

“In many ways, the artillery is using the same basic technology it was using at the turn of the 19th century,” Col Gunn noted. “So digitization is the great step forward— all of our systems will be digitized, whether truck-mounted or towed. The time it takes to get into action will be greatly reduced while concentrations of fires will be much more accurate.”

“It will all be tied into ISTAR. The optics on board the LAV Fire Effects Vehicles will be tied into the Command and Control systems. The Fire Effects Officer forward lases the target and the data goes directly back for calculations on the gun.”

Greater survivability

The mobility provided by truck-mounted Howitzers will mean greater survivability for gunners, Col Gunn said. “Dispersed guns mean it's a lot harder for the bad guys to find you—the mass of fire is on the target, the mass isn't the point from which the rounds have been fired.”

The C3 has a range of about 18 kilometres but Col Gunn noted that improvements to 105mm guns means some are pushing the 30-kilometre range and may soon be out to 40 kilometres.

Gunners are expected to have a major role in the MMEV, part of the Direct Fire System, which will include LAV-mounted Tow Under Armour and the Mobile Gun System. New Army capabilities—missiles like Hellfire or Longbow to be mounted on the MMEV, or the target acquisition capability of UAVs and ISTAR—are well-suited to the skills of artillery soldiers, Col Gunn said.

“While other branches of the combat arms tend to think in terms of contact, we tend to think in terms of depth. And once we've found something out there, we're the ones who can do something about it; we're the ones who can reach out and hit it.”

The major intellectual shift for the artillery will be a move from simply putting steel on targets to co-ordinating and conducting the full range of lethal and non-lethal effects on non-line-of-sight targets.

The artillery hopes to begin deploying some of its new capabilities in about five years.



*****

Canada.com

Feds weigh billion-dollar air transport plan

David Pugliese
CanWest News Service


Monday, May 17, 2004
A billion-dollar plan by the Canadian Forces to acquire giant transport aircraft is back on the table, two years after it was derailed by former prime minister Jean Chretien.

The plan, which could see the outright purchase of the planes or a long-term lease, is being considered as part of Prime Minister Paul Martin's international policy review. Some military officials see such aircraft as a necessity if Martin wants the Canadian Forces to play more of a role on the world stage.

The planes are also needed to respond to domestic disasters; they could move equipment and troops to cope with everything from a forest fire or earthquake in B.C. to ice storms in the east.

In early 2002, Chretien scuttled an air force plan to buy either six Boeing C-17 strategic airlift planes or up to 12 European-built Airbus A400M aircraft. He called the estimated $1-billion expense too rich for his government, and argued that if the military needed to get anywhere fast they could rent aircraft.

Later, Defence Minister John McCallum announced Canada would look at joining a NATO group that would share flying time on a fleet of planes.

But the NATO plan is now bogged down in politics. European countries want to purchase the A400M aircraft to be shared by the countries, while the U.S. and Canada propose using the C-17.

Ottawa Citizen

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