OT: 82nd Airborne adds LAV-25 unit

[shrike6]

https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-...s-style-punch/

[kato13]

The headline I saw for this was "Finally the Army gets Marine hand me downs"

[Cdnwolf]

And at about the same time...

28 temporary workers at London, Ontario General Dynamics Land Systems Canada are out of work following a review by the company.

In an emailed statement to 980 CFPL, Doug Wilson-Hodge Manager, Corporate Affairs for General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada wrote the company “reviews our volumes and planned work as a regular course of business. Positions affected are temporary contract agency positions.”

The layoffs, mostly the engineering area, happened on Tuesday.

[pmulcahy11b]

Yeah, they also did the LAV-25 thing in the early-1990s. Fiddle-fu**cked around with the idea, designed some half-assed tactics for it's use, airdropped it a few times, and generally fooled around with the idea until it died an unnatural death due to overstupidification. Then got rid of them, to the chagrin of 3-73, at the time the only armor unit in the Army with no actual armored vehicles.

Us infantrymen would have loved to see some armored backup, preferably something that had enough gun to take a stubborn blockhouse and stop a tank or two for us.

[ChalkLine]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

Us infantrymen would have loved to see some armored backup, preferably something that had enough gun to take a stubborn blockhouse and stop a tank or two for us.

Australians in Afghanistan liked how a distant AUS-LAV could add its autocannon to the firefight, winkling out difficult positions and making it impossible for the enemy to stay settled for too long

Of course they're going now and being replaced by Boxers

[Legbreaker]

Yeah, I just can't wrap my head around the reasoning behind ditching the ASLAV. Doesn't seem to make a lot of sense.
Replacing the M113's with the Boxer, sure, but I'd have thought the ASLAV's had at least another decade in them.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

The ASLAVs are getting on 30 years now, apparently their end of life cycle is 2021.
However... some of our M113s are getting on 40+ years (because of life extension rebuilds etc. etc.). The first Army Reserve unit I joined was armoured recce, I was 20 years old and some of our "buckets" were already older than i was. 2015 marked 50 years of service in the Australian Army for the 113 and they expect our AS3 and AS4 variants to be in service until 2025.
60 years of service for the bucket but the LAVs are no good after 30.
Make of that what you will.

In regards to the Boxer, I understand we are getting the IFV variant which means it will have a 2-man turret mounting a 30mm autocannon so in theory the Boxer is a capability upgrade over the 25mm armed ASLAV.

EDIT: And something that makes the Boxer more attractive, we are getting technology transfer, licences etc. etc. so we are able to build the vehicle in Australia (this includes setting up the facility to do so in Queensland) - something we never had with the ASLAVs.

[Legbreaker]

The last of the ASLAV's were only built 11 years ago though...

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

The last of the ASLAV's were only built 11 years ago though...

Yeah and from what I understand most people are pretty happy with them, but you know how the government works

[Legbreaker]

Lets hope they aren't completely retired but passed on to reserve units where they can still do some good. I know "armoured" units such as 3/9 SAMR which was stripped of the M113's and given landrovers instead in 2006 could certainly put them to good use!

[StainlessSteelCynic]

It's been interesting* seeing the changes in the last few decades. Those mech infantry and armoured recce units that were equipped with 113s have now lost their tracks and been given G-wagens and/or Bushmasters and most of the tracks have gone back to the APC role.

We don't have any true armoured recce regiments now. They have been repurposed as light cavalry so while they're still reconnaissance, they no longer have the organic firepower to carry out the kind of offensive ops they were tasked with in the past. Even when the 76mm gun was phased out, the Regiments still had 81mm AMCs along with an organic platoon of assault troopers per Squadron with the Charlie Gutsache issued at a scale of one per Section from what I remember (although it was 30 years ago and my memory could be... unreliable!)

* by "interesting" I don't necessarily mean that I think it's a good change.

[Legbreaker]

I think it's a case of cost cutting which has gone waaaaaaay too far.
I don't know of a single Australian reserve artillery unit that's actually equipped with artillery any more either - all the 105's have been replaced with 81mm mortars!