via UPI
LONDON, Ontario, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- An enhanced surveillance suite is to be provided and installed on upgraded Canadian military LAV III armored vehicles by General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada.This understated news blurb is perhaps one of the biggest things to hit the armored vehicle sector.
The surveillance system will include a 32.8-foot retractable mast, an operator control station and a surveillance suite consisting of radar, thermal/day and image intensification sights, laser range finder and GPS.
The contract is worth about $253.3 million and was announced by Minister of Public Works and Government Services Diane Finley.
"General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada continues their 37 year partnership with the Government of Canada," said Danny Deep, vice president of General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada. "More than 20 years ago, we designed and delivered to the Canadian Army the Coyote vehicle, which at the time was the best reconnaissance/surveillance vehicle in the world. We are now privileged to deliver the next generation of advanced surveillance capability to the Canadian soldier."
Upgraded LAV III infantry fighting vehicles from General Dynamics Land Systems have been designated LAV 6.0. Delivery of the vehicles is to begin at the end of 2016.
Everyone talks about "network fusion" but this actually brings ground forces into that game. It appears that the Canadian Army is actually looking at being a major part of a true 3d force (land, air and sea fully networked). Impressive.
Not exactly a new capability. We've been running gyrocams for a while now, under the JIEDDO/CIED systems for RCPs.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/products/gyrocam.html
Not to mention IFVs/APCs are not really the best platform to run surveillance from. My opinion on that is still firmly in the "men dug into a hole" camp. Hard to try sneaking a vehicle through enemy lines, much easier to sneak in on foot or dropped in by air.
ReplyDeleteHandy for a cav scout/armored recon role, but at the loss of 2-4 troops' space in the back of the spam can.
ReplyDeleteFor non-descript snooping and pooping, it has a lot of utility, esp. if you factor in the ability to send 25MM downrange at minor incursions. Not so much the sort of thing you're going to want in the Fulda Gap, but against lesser adversaries down to insurgents, that's a lot of capability that doesn't need to be humped into place.
It's not for beyond/behind the lines, it's for FEBA.
And whether it's sitting at the bottom of a wadi in the desert, or in 10-foot tall scrub brush, or low trees, a 32' mast is a pretty damn stealthy periscope to extend to let you see all around from defilade. Including up through its own camo nets.
I don't know how impressive this really is. With the armoured corps getting rid of their Coyotes for the TAPV, which I doubt has the room for the mast and surveillance suite, I wonder if this is some compromise to maintain some of their abilities. And if they are just pulling the surveillance suites out of the Coyotes on their way to the scrapyard and into some of their LAVs. I will be the first to admit I do not have much knowledge of their capabilities, but a few years ago a Dragoon showed me an iPhone app he had bought for a couple dollars, and which, according to him, was almost as capable of the suite on his Coyote. The only real deficiencies with the app was the less powerful and non-thermal camera, and the lack of the mast, but software wise it had all the same capabilities. The Canadian Army doesn't even use some form of a Blue Force Tracker, or have an efficient and timely way to transmit data, or at least not that the field force uses in Canada. We use our personal cell phones for that.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't it be quicker to just post your tactical and strategic plans straight to Beijing and Moscow?
DeleteOr was that the point?