Just a couple of quick comments.
Don.
I know that wheels are the flavour of the month and look cool, but so far they have failed miserably. Will LFWC be the only units to be able to effectively train as Combat Teams? From our experience here, LAV IIIs cannot keep up to tanks cross country due to their tendency to get bogged. How will 2 and 5 CMBGs be able to effecetively do 'War Training' if they do not have tanks or the ability to move cross-country? (Please God--don't anyone bring up the LAV AG or LAV 105!)
I notice in the news that it is tanks that are doing all the major 'killing' in ground combat in Iraq. I also notice that the press have a tendency to call anything with a turret a tank.
Canada has, oppossed to what has been stated in the press, deployed tanks overseas. I don't mean Germany; I mean to Bosnia, Macedonia and Kosovo. The Leo Is showed their worth in Kosovo, in that they were able to get into areas that the larger M1, Chieftan, and Leo IIs could not. The wheeled Centaro that the Italians sent there proved useless on the mud tracks that predominate a war torn area.
When the Defence Minister announces in the press that "we don't need 'Rambos', we need 'Computer Geeks'" we get the idea of where we are going.
All 'Heavy' assets are being moved out West--Armour, Arty and Engineer.
GW
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