Canada is preparing to spend millions on leasing 20 tanks to better protect Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan, CTV News has confirmed.
The expenditure is necessary because the existing, 30-year-old Leopard 2 tanks may have to be parked because of the brutal heat during Afghanistan's summertime, when temperatures can exceed 50 degrees Celsius.
Canada's military estimates that the temperatures inside the tanks could hit 60 to 65 degrees.
The military can't find a short-term solution to keeping the crews cool inside the vehicles, which makes parking them the only logical option.
"We will have to restrict their operations, because we're not going to lose soldiers' lives because they overheat," said Lieut.-Gen. Andrew Leslie, commander of land forces for the Army.
The new tanks would be Leopard 2 tanks, manufactured in Germany.
Besides air conditioning, the new tanks feature better protection against anti-tank weapons, roadside bombs and suicide bombings.
A cabinet committee has decided to acquire the tanks. The final decision rests with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and will likely come within a week, reported CTV's Paul Workman, on assignment in Afghanistan.
If Harper approves the acquisition, the new tanks could arrive by the summer.
Other equipment woes
The army is speeding up the rebuilding of LAV-3 armoured vehicles that have been pummelled by heavy fighting and Afghanistan's harsh terrain.
Leslie confirmed that most of the army's fleet of light armoured vehicles, which are repaired at a plant in Edmonton, will be serviced within the next six to eight months.
"The equipment is being hard-used," Leslie told CTV on Tuesday. "The Canadian army has about 600 of these light armoured vehicles and every 12 months or so we have to replace the stock. The current fleet is (already) getting to the stage where we have to think about shifting them around."
Workman reported Tuesday from Kandahar that 20 of the $3.5-million vehicles have been destroyed and cannot be replaced.
"The difficulty is that this vehicle is no longer manufactured and it's really the backbone of the vehicles the Canadian Forces use here," said Workman.
Workman said the soldiers like the sturdy vehicles, which often protect against landmines and roadside bombs.
The army is coming up with solutions, Leslie said, to ensure that troops are able to continue helping out with reconstruction and development.
In a discussion with troops in Kandahar Monday night, Leslie also said there were maintenance issues with two other military vehicles -- the new RG-31 Nyala and the Leopard tanks.
The problems have left the military in a scramble for spare parts. When Canada bought 75 of the RG-31 Nyala vehicles last year from South Africa, there was no guarantee about the availability of spare parts.
"Sometimes when you get equipment ... you don't buy all the spares ahead of time so you deploy the vehicles ... and you've got to wait for the spares to catch up," said Leslie.
Leslie told the troops that 45 boxy, tracked M113 armoured vehicles are already on their way to Afghanistan and 100 M113s will be sent within the next six to eight months.
The military is also planning to buy another 85 heavily armoured trucks.
With a report from CTV's Paul Workman
