"Also, some 100 de-turreted AVGPs were sent to some African despotic nation (?) "on loan" for their nationalistic purposes. Do you think we'll ever see them again?"
Hi Jon:
The project to send Grizzlies to the African Union was an excellent use of obsolete kit. The still turreted Grizzlies (and a few Huskies) were shipped to Senegal with a Canadian team to train operators and mechs and then moved to Darfur in the Sudan to equip African Union (AU) troops who are doing peacekeeping there.
The AVGPs remain Canadian property on loan to the AU and have allowed previously foot and jeep bound AU troops to get out and patrol their AOs properly increasing the visibility and the effectiveness of the AU as well as providing better troop protection to these soldiers.
Many problems remain... maintenance is a nightmare... desert conditions and troops not fully aware of the maintenance needs of complex mech equipment; spare parts are difficult to source, etc; different views of the tactical employment of the AVGP depending on whose doctrine the using troops learned (Soviet, French, British, US and now Canadian) result in over or under utilisation of the resource; but all in all a good way to meet some of Canada's committment to the peace efforts in Darfur.
I'm off to Kenya on 26 Sep for another round of teaching AU officers how to work in a multi-national peace support environment... all part of the same committment.
For further reading see:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/viewpoint/vp_.../20061016.html
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2005/1...ies051120.html (this story got the ages of the AVGPs wrong)
http://www.forces.gc.ca/site/Operati...al/index_e.asp
Mike
