via UPI.
SANTIAGO, Chile, June 6 (UPI) -- Chile will buy surplus U.S. stock of a dozen AAV7 armored amphibious vehicles for its new sea-borne Amphibious Expeditionary Brigade, defense industry media reported.Officials say the vehicles are being acquired from excess inventory of U.S. stockpiles but will be upgraded before they are put into service. The cost of the AAV7 acquisition was not mentioned.I'll be keeping an eye on this. Consider it an experiment to see if BAE can actually deliver what they're promising in an upgraded AAV.
The upgrade is likely to be carried out by BAE Systems' Global Combat Systems unit, Defense Market Intelligence and Chile's Defense and Military blog reported. Independent comment on the acquisition and upgrade was not immediately available.
The first of the AAV7s is set to be delivered in 2014 after the upgrade, likely to involve installation of more powerful engines. Chile's purchase includes 10 AAVP7 A1 troop transports, one AAVC7 command vehicle and one AAVR7 recovery vehicle, the reports said.
Manufactured by U.S. Combat Systems, the AAV-7A1 is the current amphibious troop transport of the U.S. Marine Corps.
The vehicles, once commissioned, will be part of a 1,400-strong brigade Chile operates aboard its Sargento Aldea multirole assault ship, acquired from France in a $80 million deal. The Sargento Aldea previously operated in the French navy as the Foudre and served allied forces in NATO Yugoslavia operations in 1992-93 and French military action in Ivory Coast.
Analysts said the tracked AAV7 could work well with the Sargento Aldea and other Chilean navy vessels but might not be suitable for peacekeeping missions requiring faster, wheeled vehicles.
It was not immediately clear if the BAE upgrade would extend to weaponry.
A standard AAV7 is usually equipped with a .50-caliber machine gun and a 40mm grenade launcher.
Chile is also looking into acquiring new helicopters, landing craft and other hardware for its armed forces.
SIDENOTE: Who knew Chile had an Amphibious Expeditionary Brigade? I still want the Marine Corps to drop the "expeditionary" label and use amphibious...as in Marine Amphibious Unit, Marine Amphibious Brigade, Marine Amphibious Force...its been done before (during Vietnam) and the term expeditionary is now simply a buzz word with no meaning.
Regarding the word expeditionary, well really the USMC do that do they? The USN taking the USMC is business as usual. If that was expeditionary every USN deploy would be an expedition. To me the word expedition something unusual. GB going to the Falklands in 82 was an expedition. A US ARG deploying is like a scheduled service.
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