Contenders for defence contracts strut their stuff at trade show
As Canada’s troops prepare to come home from Afghanistanwith their battered kit, the federal government is moving ahead with plans to buy the army a whole new fleet of armoured vehicles.
One of the contenders for the Canadian Forces’ new tactical armoured patrol vehicles (TAPV) was on display at a defence industry trade show Wednesday.
Textron’s TAPV, a descendant of the U.S. army’s ASV M11-17, is a four-man, meanlooking, four-by-fourmachine that is built to withstand IED blasts and can reach speeds of 100 km/h.
“It’s a very, very tested vehicle. We’ve been developing this vehicle for five years, and we’ve blown up a lot of them. That’s the only way you know it’s safe,” said Textron’s Neil Rutter, adding thousands of the older U.S. variant have been used in Iraq and Afghanistan. “We knowthat this vehicle can equal it (the U.S. variant) and probably surpass it for reliability.”
Textron is one of six companies short-listed to submit bids to the government in August. Thefeds are poised to buy 500 TAPVs, which will replace the fleet of soft-skinned Coyotes which have run out of room to be upgraded and are proving cramped for soldiers loaded up with gear in Afghanistan.
The feds are spending $5.2 billion on a whole new fleet of vehicles for the army, including the TAPVs and others.
CANSEC is a two-day trade showthat highlights the Canadian defence and security industry, and attracts not only U.S. companies looking for Canadian subcontractors but also foreign diplomats and Canadian Forces brass. Other new kit on display included combat gear, weapons systems, guns and defence computer systems.
