UK reorganizes Foxhound units

Thanks to Jonathan for the link!

via Janes.

A major reorganization of UK units equipped with the Foxhound light protected patrol vehicle is under way to reduce the operating costs of the 399-strong fleet of the mine-protected vehicles.

Under plans expected to be finalised by British Army chiefs, the Foxhound will be withdrawn from six infantry battalions and in future the vehicles will be issued to units prior to operational deployments or major training events.

The Royal Air Force Regiment, which operates the vehicle for the ground defence of expeditionary airfields, had already concentrated its Foxhounds into two of its five field squadrons by the end of March, according to information released to Jane's under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act.

The Foxhound was purchased as a replacement for the Snatch Land Rover, which was found to be vulnerable to improvised explosive devices (IEDs) during the early stages of the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns. Originally known as the Ocelot, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) first ordered the vehicle with its protective V-hull from UK-based Ricardo and US company Force Protection in September 2010, with the first vehicles deployed on operations in Afghanistan in 2012. General Dynamics purchased Force Protection in 2011 to create General Dynamics Land Systems-Force Protection Europe and has continued to market the Foxhound/Ocelot jointly with Ricardo.

According to FOI data, as of 1 April 2016 there were 399 Foxhounds in the UK fleet and up to early March 2017 the MoD had spent GBP467 million (USD604 million) on the procurement, support, and modification of these vehicles.

After the end of the UK combat role in Afghanistan in 2014, the Foxhounds were re-distributed around the British Army and RAF Regiment, predominately to units of the Adaptive Force intended for deployment on peacekeeping, humanitarian, training, and counter-insurgency roles in low-intensity conflict zones. For example, the British Army infantry battalion deployed to Kabul since 2014 to administer the Afghan National Army's officer training was issued with Foxhounds for use by its force protection elements.

I like the Foxhound.  I advocated for the Marine Corps to consider an off the shelf buy because it's my belief that its one of, if not the finest lightweight MRAP type vehicle going (I still can't find a weight for the JLTV....something weird with that).

Either way this truck is doomed.  Once they start with the talking point "they'll be issued before deployment" is when you know they're slow walking it out the door.