Major Hat Tip to Redken for the vid.
The above vid is a German Army demonstration of river crossing ops. A few things stood out to me.
1. The Fennek recon vehicle is probably a future star. I thought it was fully amphibious so I don't know why they would stop and not swim to the other bank to complete their recon.
2. The contraption for delivering the rubber boats to the area seemed ghetto. I wonder why they would use that instead of a dedicated trailer?
3. The FUCHs is probably the most under appreciated wheeled APC in any nations army...especially the German Army though. After watching this demo I'm more convinced than ever of the need to make your APCs amphibious. Crossing obstacles is one of the major functions of APCs and the thought that you have to do bridging ops to get vehicles like the Boxer or Stryker across gives me pause...it pauses the offensive too...and momentum is paramount in the attack.
All in all not bad for a dog and pony show. Everyone hates this stuff but they probably guaranteed funding for the next fiscal year for a few new toys.