Maybe tracked vehicles are not dead in the CF after all...

[Ex-Dragoon]

http://news.gc.ca/cfmx/view/en/index.jsp?articleid=163449

 

[McG]

The Honourable Lucienne Robillard, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and President of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada, on behalf of the Honourable David L. Emerson, Minister of Industry, today announced an $8.9-million investment in the research and development of integrated traction and moulded rubber track technologies for military vehicles.

This Technology Partnerships Canada (TPC) investment is part of a $29.7-million project being undertaken by Soucy International Inc. of Drummondville, to develop technologies intended primarily for military vehicle applications.

Sounds like $29.7 million spent so that this company can market the stuff outside Canada.

 

[Ex-Dragoon]

I guess it was too good to be true....

 

[kincanucks]

Why does this bring back ADATS and Oerlikon memories?

http://www.ploughshares.ca/CONTENT/MONITOR/mond98e.html

 

[Franko]

I participated in the trials of the rubber track in the late 90's when I was at the school....

The bottom line was: GARBAGE  :

Give them to anyone willing to buy them I say....they'll make for easier targets  ;D

Regards

 

[bossi]

Ya know ... some people are just a little too quick to use the word "obsolete" ...

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1123969809699&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home&DPL=IvsNDS%2f7ChAX&tacodalogin=yes

U.S. Marines find donkeys fitting allies in Afghan hills
Animals go where Humvees don't dare
in operation to flush out militants

Daniel Cooney, AP

TOMAS MUNITA / AP PHOTO
Marines water donkeys at a river in Kunar province, where Afghab and U.S. troops have begun a two-week operation against millitants.


KANDAGAL, Afghanistanâ ”Four-wheel-drive Humvees are so limiting in rugged mountains with few roads that a battalion of U.S. marines has recruited a centuries-old Afghan village transport alternative â ” donkeys.

About 30 have been rented from local farmers to haul food and bottled water to hundreds of Afghan and American troops on a two-week operation to battle militants deep in remote mountains in eastern Kunar province.

"This is the best way for us to resupply our troops there," said Lt.-Col. Jim Donnellan, commander of 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, based in Hawaii. "It's also much cheaper for the U.S. taxpayer for us to rent the donkeys than for everything to be air-dropped."

Using aircraft to resupply forces is also dangerous.

In late June, militants in the area shot down a special forces Chinook helicopter, killing all 16 aboard, as it tried to land in one of the steep-sided, wooded valleys that snake their way through the mountains bordering Pakistan. The aerial attempt to rescue four Navy Seals on reconnaissance who had clashed with fighters became a wake for the 16. Only one missing Seal was found alive.

The new operation that began Friday is aimed at flushing those fighters out of the valley, so U.S. commanders are understandably nervous about risking other choppers in the process.

From a temporary resupply base in a cornfield at one end of Korengal Valley, where the militants are suspected of hiding, squads of marines with heavy packs on their backs led out lines of donkeys, each carrying two boxes of water, a box of food rations and a sack of grain.

Marines carried enough food and water for themselves for two days but the donkeys gave each squad supplies for an extra 48 hours. Unloaded and led back to the resupply base, they will be reloaded to return to the mountains.

Some troops were taught to handle donkeys at the U.S. Marines' Mountain Warfare Training Center in Bridgeport, Nev., said Capt. John Moshane.

"Marines have used donkeys since the American revolution," he noted, as each animal received a spray-painted number for identification.

Still, the donkeys' periodic orneriness and determination to try to mate when untied frustrated the marines. One who slapped a donkey on the rump in exasperation got a sharp kick from a hind leg.

P.S.  A friend of the family was in the 48th Pipes & Drums, and during The Second Great Hate he ended up a "muleteer" during the fighting through Sicily and Italy.  One night, as they led the resupply column up to the front lines a German mortar stonk hit them.  A round landed on the other side of our friend's animal, killing it instantly - shrapnel passed over and under it's belly, wounding the muleteer in the head and lower leg.  Years later, after the war, I had the honour of listening to his friends joking at his wake - they said he'd been stubborn all his life, but wondered if the doc hadn't made a mistake when patching him up ... and sewn up his ear with spare parts from his mule (!)

 

[McG]

I once saw a quote stating that the US has never lost a war in which it employed Donkeys.  Superstition is now on our side in Afghanistan.

 

[Kirkhill]

The Bv206/Bv206S/BvS10 series of vehicles all use band-tracks.

An opportunity to divert more of the Defence Budget into Quebec while nodding towards military needs?  Besides don't they make snowmobiles in Quebec?

ADATS and Oerlikon indeed kincanucks.

Cheers.

And Bossi, I liked the article on Donkeys as well.