KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The ever-increasing explosive power of roadside bombs in Afghanistan has Canada's Defence Department and the army examining the idea of buying larger, more heavily armoured vehicles to shuttle troops around the battlefield.
Defence sources in Ottawa say the department will consider "a more robust combat vehicle'' as it looks toward eventually replacing the hardy LAV III, which has done yeoman's service in the war-torn region.
Planning is only in the discussion stages, but high-level sources says "broader options'' than just a straight up purchase of more light armoured vehicles are being considered.
The idea would be to pick a vehicle "somewhere between a battle tank and a light (armoured) vehicle'' for soldiers to use in close combat.
Gen. Rick Hillier, the chief of defence staff, said recently that the military is starting to look for a replacement for the LAV III, given the way the Afghan war is chewing up the army's stock fighting vehicles.
The army is interested in buying the next generation of light armoured vehicle, known as the LAV-H, which is heavier, longer, better armoured and engineered with the lessons of Afghanistan in mind.
But defence sources say that consideration is also being given to acquiring some kind of tracked carrier, possibly between 30 to 35 tonnes in weight.
"The Americans, the Germans, the British and the Dutch, the Danes are all looking at their next families of vehicles (and) they'll probably be track,'' said one source.
American forces have for years used the M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicle, which carries just as many soldiers and has the same 25 mm chain gun armament as a LAV. But the Bradley has much more armour to withstand bombs and runs on tracks, not wheels.
The Germans are developing a new generation of heavy tracked fighting vehicle with Puma, which is expected to begin entering service in 2010.
"There's quite a few out there,'' the source said.
The army is "interested in some other LAVs, but we're just looking at other options right now.''
Canadian soldiers worship their LAVs, but the Taliban have been progressively building bigger explosive charges to plant alongside paved roads, or bury in dried up riverbeds and trails that criss-cross Afghanistan's desert landscape.
The light vehicles handle well both on and off the road, except in boggy terrain where the added armoured and equipment has a tendency to weigh them down.
During an operation in mid-May, an entire platoon of LAV IIIs became stuck in the mud of a farm field on the outskirts of Kandahar City and had to wait for another unit to come and pull them out.
"There's only one swamp in Afghanistan and we had to find it,'' a soldier joked at the time.
Semi-friendly villagers gathered at the edge of the field to gawk at the helpless, huge vehicles, which the Afghans have nicknamed "green monsters.''
Some soldiers said tracked vehicles might not have gotten stuck and left them vulnerable to possible attack, but the point was debatable.
In this kind of hit-and-run war, soldiers know that speed means everything and that's why many of the troops were deeply skeptical of the suggestion that heavier tracked vehicles are the way to go.
Tracks can be more difficult to maintain than wheels, and in a rugged place like Afghanistan things are breaking all the time.
"If it's high maintenance in a country like this where everything has to be flown in because it's double landlocked, you can shut down a whole battle group waiting for parts,'' said Cpl. Darrell Rostek, of 7 Platoon, Charlie Company, of the 2 Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry battle group.
"Whereas this thing, it's wheeled. There are pros and cons for both, but you'd better pick the right one.''
A LAV III can still move and fight with more than half of its tires blown.
During Operation Medusa in the fall of 2006, Canadian commanders discovered the LAV IIIs had a tough time getting over the grapefield berms in the Panjwaii district.
It was one of the reasons the army chose to quickly deploy older, tracked Leopard C2 tanks. For that reason, some soldiers think something like an M2 Bradley fighting vehicle would be good addition, as long as the army maintained a mixture of wheeled and tracked vehicles.
"If it came out of the lessons learned, might as well give it try,'' said Cpl. Bryan Rowlandson, a reservist with the Calgary Highlanders.
"It doesn't hurt to try.''
