First batch of used Dutch tanks arrive in Canada

[CD]

First batch of used Dutch tanks arrive in Canada

16 Dec, 4:42 PM

OTTAWA - The first batch of used battle tanks that Canada purchased from the Dutch have arrived more than a year behind schedule.

Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie, head of the Canadian army, said 40 Leopard 2A-4 tanks rolled off a supply ship and onto the dock in Montreal last week.

"They are in better shape than any of us could have hoped for," Leslie said in an interview Tuesday with The Canadian Press.

The tanks, to be upgraded with extra armour for overseas missions, are being stored at the 202 Canadian Forces workshop depot in Montreal.

A tender for the work, estimated at about $200 million, isn't expected to be issued for a year, say federal documents.

The 50-tonne iron monsters will sit idle while the federal government finds a company capable of the specialized modifications, which will include installing an electric turret drive, a shorter gun barrel and an air-cooling system.

The $120-million purchase of 100 tanks from the Netherlands was announced by former defence minister Gordon O'Connor in April 2007, who said they would arrive within six months. The Dutch government mothballed the tanks at the end of the Cold War.

The deal was part of a two-step process to reinforce Canadian troops battling the Taliban in the hinterlands of Afghanistan.

Fierce battles in the summer of 2006 convinced ground commanders that tanks would be needed to blast enemy fighters from behind thick mud-walled redoubts outside of Kandahar.

The army dispatched nearly 30-year-old Leopard C1s, vehicles with few spare parts and no air conditioning. In the blistering 55 C Afghan sun and choking dust, conditions in tanks were soon unbearable for their crews.

The Defence Department quickly arranged to borrow 20 Leopard A6Ms from the Germans, with the promise that they would be replaced by some of the tanks bought from the Dutch.

The German tanks, with extra armour to resist roadside bomb and mine blasts, are still in service in Kandahar.

A federal tendering document last spring said Canada would have to rely on the borrowed tanks until 2011 because modifications on the Dutch armoured vehicles would take longer than expected.

Part of the problem is that industrial expertise to refurbish the vehicles has been lost over the years because, until Afghanistan, the army was planning to get out of the tank business and rely instead on wheeled big gun vehicles.

Leslie said negotiations are underway with the Dutch to deliver the next batch of 40 tanks, which will not require as much modification because the army intends to use them as training vehicles.

The last 20 armoured vehicles are expected to remain in Europe, where they will be modified and presented to the Germans as replacements for the vehicles being banged up in Afghanistan.

[BibleMonkey]

Get General motors Canada busy building tanks. Make a needed product while decreasing a bailout that funds an unwanted product, and protect the boys.

Yeah I know, not a perfect idea-mebbe too much retool time, puts only some money into Gm-but better than a bridge loan/bailout to make machines that the consumers aren't buying.

Build some ( made-in Canada ) ships too-icebreakers. There's a useful stimulus. The U.S (lobbyists) won't allow any of that though.

[Phaedrus]

Good idea BMonkey,

They should also make some fuel efficient clean-diesel humvees (H1), to be sold at reasonable prices for military and civilian use all over the north.
That, and getting rid of redundant brands like Pontiac and Buick, and those ridiculous union contracts, and they almost have the makings of a successful company...

[Just another canuck]

Explain to me why we need tanks again...

[BibleMonkey]

Explain to me why we need tanks again...

Blasting asshats out of mud buildings. Airstrike knocks the whole building over, 150 mm cannon punches hole inna wall-easier to rebuild.

IED protection; if you do decide to order someone to walk around in rattlesnake country, at least give 'em a pair of tall boots, not running shoes.

[BibleMonkey]

Good idea BMonkey,

They should also make some fuel efficient clean-diesel humvees (H1), to be sold at reasonable prices for military and civilian use all over the north.
That, and getting rid of redundant brands like Pontiac and Buick, and those ridiculous union contracts, and they almost have the makings of a successful company...

Unions have their place; if it weren't for unions 16 year olds would still be going down coal mines...
The U.S car manufacturing/assembly plants that are located in the southern red states -younger work force, living wage but non-union-aren't in line for a bailout, though.

Ford, GM, Chrysler-union labour, older workforce ( higher U.S medical costs), higher pension costs ( 2 grand a car ) are unavoidably going to go belly up. The main reason GM moved so heavily into Ontario -Canadian workers work for less, and because the medical coverage is a thousand bucks a car cheaper.

Aw well-Henry Ford put the buggy whip manufacturers out of business-nothing lasts forever...

[Doc]

Did any have a fire on board during delivery? Oh, so sorry, they aren't British. Me bad.

[BoostedNihilist]

Did any have a fire on board during delivery? Oh, so sorry, they aren't British. Me bad

LOL, fucking lucas

[North Shore]

IED protection

Until the IED placers finally wise up and just make bigger IED's

[square]

where are the pictures of tanks?

[grimey]

where are the pictures of tanks?

http://www.casr.ca/bg-leopard2-netherlands.htm

[niss]

The RPG protection fence always amazes me. Something so simple works so well.

[Blue Side Down]

IED protection

Until the IED placers finally wise up and just make bigger IED's

Oh, they don't need to... the stock armoring that Canadian vehicles go into service with is decorative at best most days. While there is a firm based in Canada retrofitting the American fleet of APC's and the like with the most effective armor system known in the world today, the whiz kids in Ottawa can't, or don't want to, put two and two together to ensure the troops have the protection they deserve.