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Army eyeing armour that fights back: Afghanistan threat
The Canadian army wants to buy and test a new high-tech armour for its military vehicles that would detect and intercept incoming rocket-propelled grenades.
The "active protection system" would use a sensor such as radar to identify an approaching threat and launch a countermeasure, perhaps a grenade, to either destroy or deflect it, said Lieutenant-Colonel Perry Wells, with the Department of National Defence and Canadian Forces.
This would happen 15 to 25 metres away from the vehicle and minimize collateral damage to the vehicle or any people near it, he said.
If successful, the new armour could give western armed forces the advantage against terrorists and insurgents armed with the ubiquitous RPG, which can penetrate most heavy armour.
Lt.-Col. Wells, a 25-year army veteran, said the need for the active protection system grows with the changing security environment. He will be sorting through bids from technology companies (the deadline for proposals was last Friday) as hundreds of Canadian soldiers land in Afghanistan this month.
About 2,200 troops will form a Canadian-led brigade in a region where the Taliban and their allies have been mounting a campaign of roadside bombings and suicide bombings against Canadian, U.S. and other allied troops. On the weekend, Taliban guerrillas planted a roadside bomb targeting Canadian troops but soldiers caught a man in the act. Last week, a roadside bomb slightly injured three soldiers and damaged one LAV III armoured infantry carrier.
While Lt.-Col. Wells said he doesn't know whether the technology would prevent future attacks from roadside bombs until it is tested, Chris Foss, an arms and artillery expert with Jane's, the London-based defence publishing and analysis group, said it's not likely.
"Most of our casualties are not caused by RPGs but improvised explosion devices such as roadside bombings, in which an active system won't help you," Mr. Foss said.
Lt.-Col. Wells said the military is hoping to the have the active protection system in use on its Mobile Gun System (MGS), armoured direct-fire vehicles, no later than December, 2010.
"It's a fairly aggressive timeline but it's a fairly important thing that we're trying to achieve," he said.
Sean Henry, a defence analyst and retired army colonel, said the new technology sounds promising but stressed the urgency of increased protection for Canada's troops.
"This is a whole new ballgame of warfare. The enemy is becoming a little more sophisticated, even though it's crude sophistication. They are becoming more effective," he said from his home in Ottawa.
"The Canadian Armed Forces should have been able to draw on this type of technology and should have been getting at it a long time ago. The only reason they didn't was because they had no money."
Money for the new technology is built into funding for the MGSs, which are now under development in the United States. More funds will have to be sought to equip the rest of the fleet if it proves successful, he added.
Military experts have charged that the armour currently on Canadian military vehicles is too light to survive on modern battlefields.
"[RPGs are] cheap to produce and easy to use so they're all over the place. But they're hard to defeat. Even the biggest tanks in the world, the RPG could put a hole in it," he said. "So our lightly armoured vehicles are therefore at somewhat of a risk. The idea is to try and mitigate that risk."
Mr. Foss said active protection systems are under development around the world -- including one that detects RPGs and launches a barrage of pellets, forming a "wall" of steel in the direction of the threat -- but none have made it to the field as yet.
Army eyeing armour that fights back: Afghanistan threat
The Canadian army wants to buy and test a new high-tech armour for its military vehicles that would detect and intercept incoming rocket-propelled grenades.
The "active protection system" would use a sensor such as radar to identify an approaching threat and launch a countermeasure, perhaps a grenade, to either destroy or deflect it, said Lieutenant-Colonel Perry Wells, with the Department of National Defence and Canadian Forces.
This would happen 15 to 25 metres away from the vehicle and minimize collateral damage to the vehicle or any people near it, he said.
If successful, the new armour could give western armed forces the advantage against terrorists and insurgents armed with the ubiquitous RPG, which can penetrate most heavy armour.
Lt.-Col. Wells, a 25-year army veteran, said the need for the active protection system grows with the changing security environment. He will be sorting through bids from technology companies (the deadline for proposals was last Friday) as hundreds of Canadian soldiers land in Afghanistan this month.
About 2,200 troops will form a Canadian-led brigade in a region where the Taliban and their allies have been mounting a campaign of roadside bombings and suicide bombings against Canadian, U.S. and other allied troops. On the weekend, Taliban guerrillas planted a roadside bomb targeting Canadian troops but soldiers caught a man in the act. Last week, a roadside bomb slightly injured three soldiers and damaged one LAV III armoured infantry carrier.
While Lt.-Col. Wells said he doesn't know whether the technology would prevent future attacks from roadside bombs until it is tested, Chris Foss, an arms and artillery expert with Jane's, the London-based defence publishing and analysis group, said it's not likely.
"Most of our casualties are not caused by RPGs but improvised explosion devices such as roadside bombings, in which an active system won't help you," Mr. Foss said.
Lt.-Col. Wells said the military is hoping to the have the active protection system in use on its Mobile Gun System (MGS), armoured direct-fire vehicles, no later than December, 2010.
"It's a fairly aggressive timeline but it's a fairly important thing that we're trying to achieve," he said.
Sean Henry, a defence analyst and retired army colonel, said the new technology sounds promising but stressed the urgency of increased protection for Canada's troops.
"This is a whole new ballgame of warfare. The enemy is becoming a little more sophisticated, even though it's crude sophistication. They are becoming more effective," he said from his home in Ottawa.
"The Canadian Armed Forces should have been able to draw on this type of technology and should have been getting at it a long time ago. The only reason they didn't was because they had no money."
Money for the new technology is built into funding for the MGSs, which are now under development in the United States. More funds will have to be sought to equip the rest of the fleet if it proves successful, he added.
Military experts have charged that the armour currently on Canadian military vehicles is too light to survive on modern battlefields.
"[RPGs are] cheap to produce and easy to use so they're all over the place. But they're hard to defeat. Even the biggest tanks in the world, the RPG could put a hole in it," he said. "So our lightly armoured vehicles are therefore at somewhat of a risk. The idea is to try and mitigate that risk."
Mr. Foss said active protection systems are under development around the world -- including one that detects RPGs and launches a barrage of pellets, forming a "wall" of steel in the direction of the threat -- but none have made it to the field as yet.
