via Press Release.
OTTAWA, ON – Textron Systems Canada Inc., a Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT) company, today announced that Textron Marine & Land Systems (TM&LS) has completed and shipped four pre-production Canadian Forces Tactical Armoured Patrol Vehicles (TAPV) to locations in the United States and Canada for a series of testing and training activities.That my friends is how you run a vehicle program. Selection was in June...full rate production will start in January...Well done Textron and Canadian Army. If only we could be that efficient.
The Textron TAPV Team, led by Textron Systems Canada, was selected in June 2012 to manufacture 500 Canadian Forces Tactical Armoured Patrol Vehicles with options for up to 100 more. The TAPV contract, with options, has a value of $603.4 million CAD, with an additional five-year in-service support contract of $105.4 million CAD.
In early July, the first pre-production vehicle (PPV) was sent to Aberdeen Test Center, a U.S. Army test facility in Maryland, for qualification testing; a process scheduled to take five months. The second PPV arrived at Rheinmetall Canada in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec in mid July. Rheinmetall completed Land Communication Information System training with this vehicle, which was followed by electro optical technical training performed by Kongsberg Protech Systems Canada and vehicle technician training by TM&LS.
The third and fourth TAPV PPVs also are at Rheinmetall Canada, where vehicle integration activities are taking place. Over the next several weeks, TM&LS is scheduled to finish work on two additional PPVs. At that point, five of the six PPVs will be sent to Canadian Forces Base Valcartier in Quebec for two weeks of Operator and Gunner Operator Training starting in late August. Immediately following, these pre-production TAPVs will begin Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Durability (RAMD) testing at Valcartier. RAMD testing is expected to continue for eight months.
“Our pre-production vehicle assembly, testing and training is on schedule and moving us toward the start of full-rate production planned for January of 2014,” said Neil Rutter, general manager of Textron Systems Canada. “We remain committed to working with our Department of National Defense customer and our partners here in Canada to build and support a fleet of TAPVs that provide Canadian soldiers with unmatched performance and protection for decades.”
It is all about how you write the specs.
ReplyDeleteWant MRAP protection same as a 40,000lb vehicle but want it to weigh 14,000lbs? Are you going to test everything before you buy it or take the manufacturer's word for it that it works? Are you going to study and analyze every aspect of the vehicle to determine the full lifetime costs and employ thousands of people to conduct this analysis? Are you going to put off the shelf radios in the vehicle or do you want the manufacturer to develop their own comm system?
The acquisition system actually works decently for super cool futuristic systems, say for example a nuclear powered submarine launching intercontinental ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads, where you have to develop missile, warhead and submarine all at the same time.
The acquisition systems sucks when it comes to buying new trucks, mortars, or anything else that is simply a basic evolution over what is already in inventory.
Before you go giving the army too much credit, we still need to see if this vehicle will do any good. I have yet to hear anyone who would use the TAPV say anything good about it. In the armoured corps it will be taking on the recce role, replaceing the current Coyotes (LAV-25). Lack of firepower and shiny glass are only two of the complaints from that wing. It is also set to be given to the infantry to mount up the light battalions (which doesn't seem so light anymore), but has insufficient lift to carry a single section, requiring a second vehicle, there fore a second crew to man it, resulting in less dismounts once the show starts. It will also be given to the infantry's recce platoons to replace their G-Wagens. Well those don't get much real life use outside the wire, TAPV is not the way anyone actually in recce seems to want to go, for many of the same reasons as the others mentioned above. I am not saying the process didn't act quickly, but we will have to wait and see if it acted effectively, because the end users didn't seem to thing it was the right choice well before it was ever selected.
ReplyDeleteif Canada is going to go the way of the Germans in gathering intel then you need vehicles that can go anywhere deploy its mast and sit and wait. if you want to do the US Army's way then you need a close combat vehicle that can go out and hit the enemy and basically take info and if possible exploit any gaps found.
Deletethe US Army is super heavy and can afford the fight. lighter formations like the USMC and Canada need to do it a bit more passively.
i think the vehicle will perform well. it'll take a change in tactics but if the G-Wagons and LAV-25 were used for recce then a pretty good middle vehicle was found
Here in Canada we are actually remanufacturing a few LAV III's with a new RECCE suit to replace the Coyote in the heavy sensor and firepower role while gaining new capability with the TAPV RECCE version for a light and fast role.
DeleteAt the end of the day, how sophisticated does it really need to be? How functionable will it be in harsh environments? I think the Canadians made a wise choice here. Not too expensive, easy to operate and maintain..and simple, straight forward army technology. It'll serve it's purpose well enough, and "well enough" is all anyone really needs from these sorts of vehicles in the field.
ReplyDeletewell you're hitting on something i've been yelling about. its a truck not a rolls royce. it isn't loaded down with anything that isn't needed for the mission. the Canadians can add that later if needed. additionally i like the two axle layout. i'm surprised that multi-wheeled vehicles are so popular. that simply adds to the complexity and in actuality doesn't add that much redundancy if battle damaged. another plus is that this vehicle is MRAP lite. it has a shallow v-hull and its high enough to help mitigate blasts...which also make it quite capable off road.
Deletethe truck is a winner. i like it.