Comments on: Mainstream Media – Tanks Unfit for Service

By: DominicJ

DominicJ — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:55:39 +0000

Thats actualy a good idea, arent about a third of the UK’s Typhoons going into storage, maybe we could store half a dozen Typhoons, 20 or so challengers and 80 or so of these….

By: paul g

paul g — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:15:43 +0000

could we not store some of these down in MPA “just in case” better they are stored near where they might be needed than trying to get them down there short notice insted of deepest hampshire!!!

By: don 10

don 10 — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:42:48 +0000

As an ex tanky, those have always been my thoughts,why drive on routes where the bogies know you will be moving. If you have tracks you can more or less pick your own route, and avoid the obvious. Tracked vehicles are more maintenance intensive than wheeled of course.

The FV430 seies mostly has a cupola mounted gimpy, I suppose to a civvy it looks like a turret.

In Libya we stuck to tracks as there were still mines from WW2, and if you had a track going your way it was cushtie.

But it highlights more and more the fact that we simply have never had enough choppers in theatre. To take a year to get the Merlins from Iraq has just been hellish.

Surely even a politician can see if you can fly in, it is much safer. Of course there are operations that require vehicles, but mostly there is not enough air transport going on.

By: Jed

Jed — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:17:58 +0000

This is so frack’d up and wrong on some many levels its unbelievable. Obviously mainstream journalism no longer requires any fact checking what-so-ever ! But you would expect this piece to have been written by a “defence correspondent” who might know their arse from their elbow ?

Apart from being an upgrade to a very old piece of kit, and possibly not being as blast resistant as purpose manufactured MRAP’s the Bulldog is exactly what is required in Afghanistan – a tracked vehicle with better protection than the Viking but weighing less than the Warrior. Wheeled MRAP’s are very heavy, due their levels of protection and they are suffering heaving in the awful terrain of Afghanistan, as are the generally lighter U.S. Strykers and Canadian LAV’s. It’s a vicious circle, if you stick to roads and decent tracks because you have wheeled vehicles, then the bad guys know where to place bigger and bigger IED’s – if you go off road into the rougher terrain then you need tracks. Now maybe the Army does not actually need all 900 of them deployed to the current theater but the lack of any military knowledge displayed in yet another piece of sensationalist crap makes my blood boil – as you cant tell !