The first 60 Gelaendenwagen vehicles, “G Wagon” for short, produced by Mercedes Benz in Graz, Austria, will be deployed to Afghanistan in March for use during Operation ATHENA. An additional 40 vehicles will be delivered to the CF shortly thereafter and the remainder of the fleet will be fielded over the next several months to units in Canada. Delivery will be completed by August 2005.
A $126-million contract was awarded to Mercedes Benz Canada on October 21, for the procurement of 802 G Wagons and 118 armour protection systems (APS). The contract includes an unfunded option to buy up to 499 additional vehicles and up to 135 additional APS kits at an additional cost of $99.4 million�an additional 42 APS were purchased under this option in December 2003 for $4.44 million bringing the total number of APS kits to 160.
Mercedes Benz website;
The legendary G-Wagon has remained virtually unchanged in it’s design since 1979, except for various safety and technology upgrades.� According to Dieter Zetsche, head of the Mercedes Car Group, “Mercedes-Benz wrote automotive history by always ensuring that the G-Class remained state of-the-art over the past 26 years, and it will continue to offer its customers the very latest technology in the future.�
Production for the G-Class will remain at the Magna Steyr Plant in Graz, Austria, where over 185,000 have been produced throughout the years.
Autoparts Report,�March 20, 2002
[Belinda Stronach] also commented: “The increased vehicle project management and assembly contracts awarded to Magna Steyr provides increased opportunities to source more parts content from Magna’s other automotive systems companies and groups,”
Special thanks to CBCwatch for the heads up on this one.
I don’t see the problem. She has all her assets in a blonde trust doesn’t she?
“Canada’s Magna International Inc. acquired control of Steyr-Daimler-Puch in 1998, giving Magna, one of the world’s largest auto suppliers, the ability to produce whole vehicles. Today, Magna-Steyr also produces the Mercedes-Benz E-Class, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Chrysler Voyager, BMW X3 and Saab 9-3 convertible.Canada’s Magna International Inc. acquired control of Steyr-Daimler-Puch in 1998, giving Magna, one of the world’s largest auto suppliers, the ability to produce whole vehicles. Today, Magna-Steyr also produces the Mercedes-Benz E-Class, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Chrysler Voyager, BMW X3 and Saab 9-3 convertible.”
http://www.canadiandriver.com/roadtest/05g-class.htm
Looks like an Ilti. Where is the armor? Does Quebec get a piece of this?
Sure looks like this purchase was sole-sourced. However Belinda was not even in politics when the acquisition started.
Army, Maple Leaf, 05 February 2003, Vol. 6 No. 4
http://www.forces.gc.ca/site/community/MapleLeaf/html_files/html_view_e.asp?page=vol6-04army
“The Operational LUVW
The second vehicle, the LUVW (SMP), is based on the Mercedes Gel�ndewagen (270I G-Wagen) currently in service in several European countries. In April 2002, DND purchased four of the vehicles under a test contract to conduct a series of trials and tests to prove the vehicle�s reliability, availability, maintainability and durability. Trials have been conducted at Canadian and American test facilities.
Some additional requirements include a ballistic protection kit to protect the crew from rifle fire, artillery fragments and small mines; a run-flat tire system; a cold starting kit; and for the Command and Recce variant, a turret ring to mount a machine gun.
Upon the successful completion of the Compliancy Test Program, scheduled for the summer, a production contract will follow for 802 of these vehicles in three variants: 573 basic, 183 Command and Recce, and 46 MP. Armour Protection kits will also be purchased for 118 of the vehicles.”
Mark
Ottawa
The USMC also uses the G-Wagen as the base for the IFAV (Interim Fast Attack Vehicle).
European armies seem to like them pretty well, and they’ve used a larger Mercedes 4WD truck (the Unimog) for decades.
Mark/Sigivald:
Stop it, now, will you! You are killing a perfectly good conspiracy theory here!!
As usual, we’re cheaping out when it comes to equipping our troops. Since these vehicles are only resistant to small arms fire and small land mines, then your average roadside bomb, anti-tank mine, or poorly aimed RPG round will blast the G-Wagon and its occupants to kingdom come. They are more suited to police duties as opposed to military theatres full of heavily-armed jihadists.
There are plenty of armoured vehicles available from European, American and South African concerns that provide excellent protection against RPG rounds and anti-tank mines in a vehicle that isn’t a whole lot bigger than and just as maneuverable as the G-Wagon. My guess is that we’re not interested in any of those options because they aren’t a good fit for Belinda’s factories. It makes me sick to read this kind of news.
It seems to me that if you are going to spend over
120,000 a vehicle maybe it would be a good idea to
get one that is actually designed to do the job. Instead of purchasing street vehicle that is converted to military purpose.
HMMWV’s were designed to for military purpose and are considered the best in the world bar none.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ground/hmmwv.htm
Haven’t found the basic price for one yet but I doubt it’s much pricier than the Belinda mobile and is certainly better at doing the job.
Specs on the M1025:
M1025
The M1025, M1025A1, M1026 and M1026A1 HMMWVs are Armament Carrier configurations of the HMMWV family. The vehicles are equipped with basic armor and the weapon mount, located on the roof of the vehicle, is adaptable to mount either the M60, 7.62mm machine gun; M2 .50 caliber machine gun; or the MK 19 Grenade Launcher. The weapons platform can be traversed 360 degrees. The vehicles can climb 60% slopes and traverse a side slope of up to 40% fully loaded. The vehicles can ford hard bottom water crossing up to 30 inches without a deep water fording kit and up to 60 inches with the kit. The M1026/M1026A1 are equipped with the self-recovery winch which can also be used to recover like systems. The M1025A1 and M1026A1 models have the latest modifications applied to the vehicles.
Unit replacement cost for the HMMWV according to the marines is $50,000
http://www.hqmc.usmc.mil/factfile.nsf/7e931335d515626a8525628100676e0c/deef19f7262589df8525627a0052894a
Mission: The M998 is the baseline vehicle for the M998 series of 1 1/4-ton trucks, which are known as the HMMWV vehicles. The HMMWV vehicles include 11 variants. They are: M998 Cargo/Troop Carrier; M1038 Cargo/Troop Carrier, with winch; M1043 Armament Carrier; M1044 Armament Carrier, with winch; M1045 TOW Carrier; M1046 TOW Carrier, with winch; M997 Ambulance, basic armor 4-Litter; M1035 Ambulance, 2-Litter; M1037 Shelter Carrier; M1042 Shelter Carrier, with winch; M1097 Heavy HMMWV (payload of 4,400 pounds). All HMMWVS are designed for use over all types of roads, in all weather conditions and are extremely effective in the most difficult terrain. The HMMWVS high power-to-weight ratio, four wheeled drive and high ground clearance combine to give it outstanding cross-country mobility.
I wonder, is Bombadier going to construct the vehicles, thus tripling their cost?
Basic M 998 HMMWV cost is about $35000. Fully armoured about $95,000.
Interesting story. Reminds me of the connection between CSL and Stelco. (see: http://www.aurora.ca/news_detail.php?news_id=10)
Oh, and didn’t Stelco get a cash infusion from the Martin government just today?
FYI, DaimlerChrysler’s about to launch the new G-Class.
We’re getting the old one. How typically Liberal.
Couldn’t get Hummers, eh? ‘Cause then they couldn’t reward Belinda, as Magna doesn’t do Hummer H1s, does it? It’s an AM General vehicle, though the H2 and H3 are based on GM trucks.
Serious lemons? During an European auto show, the was a demontration of new collision avoidance systems. Cameras rolling the press at full alert.
The worst possible light for the system to fail, thus producing a dramatic reason for a fall in share values on the stock market.
There once was a time when Mercdes Benz checked everything carefully before allowing a *go*.
73s TG
Not to worry about the lack of RPG protection; Canadians are so loved by the bad guys that they would never fire a RPG at Canadians, only rifles and “small” land mines are spread in the path of Canadians. Buy Humvees? Are you kidding? Canadians will go forth in good German vehicles. After all the ILTIS was powered by a VW Rabbit engine. But what I don’t understand is, why we didn’t go to the Brits and buy some of their clapped out Land Rovers. That’s how we got our submarine fleet.