OTTAWA - The Defence Department has quietly signed a deal with a U.S. defence contractor to acquire 10 heavily armoured patrol vehicles.
The US $8.8 million deal was announced by Force Protection, Inc., (NASDAQ:FRPT) of Charleston, S.C., on its website late last week.
The company will manufacture 10 Buffalo and Cougar mine-protected vehicles -- five each -- for the Canadian expeditionary force command.
The trucks, which have a V-shaped hull meant to deflect the blasts of roadside bombs, are expected to be delivered in August and are destined for duty in Afghanistan.
"This initial, urgent order will go . . . for immediate deployment,'' Damon Walsh, a vice-president at Force Protection, said in a statement.
"Based on past performance, we know it will save Canadian lives.''
Defence has not commented on the purchase, nor explained why the vehicles are necessary after last year's acquisition of 75 RG-31 Nyalas from a South African subsidiary of British-owned BAE Systems Inc.
The Nyala, although loved by the troops for the protection that it affords from improvised explosives, went through a series of teething pains.
The vehicle, which has seen service all over the world, was specially modified for Canada's needs in Afghanistan. Rather being fielded tested to work out the bugs, the Nyalas went straight from the South African assembly line on to the explosive-strewn streets of Kandahar.
Last summer, at the height of fierce fighting with the Taliban, more than a quarter of the fleet was in the shop with maintenance problems, army records show.
Most of the problems were either electrical or software glitches, many relating to the roof-mounted, remote-controlled machine gun.
The alternators in the Nyalas could not handle the combined load of the remote-controlled machine gun and newly installed Canadian radios and jammers. The electrical system had to be beefed up to handle 280 amps.
It's unclear if those problems convinced the department to shop elsewhere -- or whether the new vehicles will have a defined role with specific types of troops.
For example, since 2003, American forces have assigned Cougars and Buffaloes to engineering and explosive-disposal teams.
Unlike, the Nyala, the new trucks have no windows and are capable of carrying more troops and equipment.
