Re: What? No way...

>Just as a side note we are currently in the process of converting two
>tank/mech brigades into wheeled armor mobile brigades.  One is standing
>up this quarter. 3/2ID out of Ft Lewis. They traded in their M1Abrahms
>for 46 LAV IIIs on loan from the Canadian Army.  The new brigades are
>being termed Initial brigades duwe to where they are slotted in any
>intervention.
>
>** We have tanks to loan someone else? (Well, a wheeled armoured
vehicle
>isn't a tank, but for us Canucks it sure seems like the closest thing
we've
>seen in a while). THAT surprises me. Though we have made good use of
6x6
>Grizzlys, Bisons and other similar vehicles (a LAV like product) from
times
>ancient... and 8x8 is the new choice de jour. They are pretty good for
the
>kind of work a lot of our military forces do. 

The vehicle on loan to the US is the new Canadian APC.	It is basically
an
upgraded version of the vehicle the Australians and USMC use as the LAV,
and similar to the Canadian Bison and the new Canadian Armoured Recce
vehicle (which is much in demand in Kosovo with its unique and rather
high-tech features).  It has space for 8 infantry (2 more than the 6
carried in the older LAV variant), a turret with a 25mm autocannon and a
coaxial mg, etc.  It is a bit bigger than the previous versions, and I
believe is better armoured.  This family of vehicles are built for the
USMC, the Australians and the Canadians (and I think they've sold a
bunch
in the Middle East - to Saudi Arabia ??) here in Canada, by the Diesel
Division of GM Canada in Windsor (across the river from Detroit).  They
are
all based on the Swiss MOWAG series of vehicles.  Good kit, supposedly. 
I
heard a story about the company demonstrating them to reps from one of
the
Asian countries (I think Thailand or Malasia) who wondered what would
happen if the vehicles suffered damage to the wheels in the very soupy
terrain in their country.  So the company took off four of the eight
wheels
(two on each side), and drove it into two foot deep mud.  And the
vehicle
drove through the mud just fine.

The versions we're building here for our army are fully road-legal, so
they
are self-deployable over great distances.  Kind of odd seeing them
trucking
down the highway with the commander sitting in the top hatch, with
licence
plates bolted on... 

Adrian