The
Canadian military announced Friday the cancellation of plans to
purchase $2.1 billion (Canadian dollars) worth of combat vehicles,
citing budget constraints.
"We recommended that the government of
Canada not proceed with the procurement process for the Close Combat
Vehicle," said a statement.
Defense Minister Rob Nicholson agreed.
The
program to purchase 108 of the vehicles was conceived at the height of
Canada's decade-long military involvement in Afghanistan.
They
were to be larger and more heavily-armored than the LAV III vehicles in
use at the time, and which provided too little protection against
insurgents' roadside bomb attacks.
Four years later, Canada's combat mission in Afghanistan is over and the government is reviewing its defense needs.
Canada's
longest-running combat mission officially ended in July 2011 — after
joining NATO's coalition in Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban a
decade earlier — with the handover of security duties in Kandahar
province to US and Afghan troops.
Canadian forces have since been
training Afghan army and police in and near Kabul. The last military
trainers are scheduled to pull out of Afghanistan in March.
Defense
contractors Nexter, BAE Systems and General Dynamics Land Systems bid
on the armored vehicle project, but a decision on a supplier had yet to
be announced.
General
Tom Lawson, the chief of the defense staff, told a press conference
that upgrades to its fleet of LAV III have "addressed the protection
concerns" of the military.
"The capabilities of the Upgraded
Light Armored Vehicle III are far superior to what was originally
envisioned" in 2009, he explained.
Additionally, increased
surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, advances in countering
improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and improvements in the army's
tactics "have all resulted in significant mitigation of tactical risk to
our soldiers in deployed combat operations," he said.
The fate
of other planned major purchases of fighter jets, frigates, Arctic
patrol ships and an assortment of armored vehicles, meanwhile, remains
in doubt as the government continues cutting spending in order to return
to a balanced budget by 2015. [via]
Monday, December 23, 2013
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