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bobdina
05-15-2009, 10:28 PM
LONDON - Britain is to withdraw the recently purchased Vector armored vehicle from operations in Afghanistan after admitting it is too vulnerable as roadside bombs get bigger.

The MoD bought nearly 200 of the protected patrol vehicles for units in Afghanistan and Iraq, rushing the first ones into service in early 2007 to replace Snatch Land Rovers in which several British troops had been killed by roadside bombs.

An MoD spokesman confirmed the intention to withdraw the vehicle in a May 1 statement.

"Since its introduction to theater, the evolving threat from larger improvised explosive devices on operations has led to a requirement for more medium and heavy capability vehicles to withstand these devices," the spokesman said. "Following the delivery of Mastiff 2, Ridgback and vehicles from the protected mobility package announced [by the MoD] in October 2008, we intend to withdraw Vector from operations in Afghanistan. This will be a phased withdrawal and will not lead to any capability gap."

Sources said many of the six-wheel-drive Vectors are already sitting in vehicle parks, unused by troops who have moved to the more heavily protected Force Protection Cougar vehicle, known in British Army service as the Mastiff.

Vector has attracted increasing criticism in the media for its vulnerability to roadside bombs. The vehicle has also suffered unreliable front hubs and other technical problems. BAE Systems fixed that problem at its own expense.

Defence Secretary John Hutton called the Vector the least successful of the armored vehicles purchased by the MoD under the urgent operational requirements procurement process.

"Mistakes were probably made there," he told the parliamentary Defence Committee here April 28.

BAE, which acquired Vector builder Pinzgauer as part of a wider purchase of Armor Holding in the U.S., still has to deliver about 20 vehicles it is assembling at its Newcastle factory in northeastern England.

The company recently announced it was closing the ex-Pinzgauer site at Guildford and moving the remaining support work on the company's vehicle fleet to Newcastle as part of a rationalization plan in the land sector here.

Three armored vehicle plants are closing with the loss of up to 500 jobs.

BAE said it would "continue to support the Vector vehicles in British Army service."

Scott
05-16-2009, 11:14 AM
well it does'nt matter anyway, Britain is pulling out of the war, the ground troops first and i beleive the air surpport will be the very last to pull out.

bobdina
05-16-2009, 11:16 AM
not from Iraq from Afghanistan.

Scott
05-16-2009, 12:20 PM
well for the time being yes but britain is pulling out of the war, maybe not straight away but within months most of the troops will be gone, they've started to come home already.

it was in a news article also that the air support will be the last ones out. i'll try have alook around later on :)

bobdina
05-16-2009, 02:06 PM
could you tell me where you saw that I have seen nothing from the bbc to the MOD. THe only thing I saw was from last week stating Prime Minister Brown won't send anymore troops than the 8300 already there. He stated he is commited to NATO and the U.K.'s special special relationship with theU.S. Now Canada has said it is going to start pulling back it's troops next year.

Cruelbreed
05-16-2009, 04:05 PM
they're ending in iraq

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8026136.stm

In afghanistan I believe troops are being added

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/world/europe/30britain.html

Scott
05-16-2009, 04:20 PM
you are right, my bad, i was sure they was being pulled out for good, maybe i read the report that it might happen in a year or two , well if they was being withdrawed i would disagree with it totally, im glad their staying.

we have all made a success in Iraq, now the big focus is on afghanistan, as the 5 Thousand Strong Taliban are being overun by our presence they are starting to take over villages in pakistan , the army of pakistan 15thousand strong around moving in bombarding the taliban.


"It is not clear if the Pakistani military is trained and even equipped to go into a situation like that," she said, adding that even the United States military "would have to think twice" about such an offensive.

She estimates there are 5,000 Taliban fighters in the area.

"The question is: Are they going to try to stand and fight, or try to regroup?" she asked.

With a government offensive against the Taliban nearly three weeks old, a spokesman for Pakistan's army said the military intends to drive the Taliban out of the contested area.

"The whole resolve of the government and the military is to once and for all finish the Taliban from the Valley of Swat," Pakistani military spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas told CNN's Reza Sayah.

The Pakistani military is trying to push the Taliban away from the heavily forested and mountainous regions of the Swat district toward the south, so the army can encircle the militants, Bhalla said.

Stratfor based its analysis on "people on the ground" and "local reporting," declining to go into detail, she said. Journalists and aid workers have been barred from the conflict zone.

The army has about 15,000 troops on the ground, she said.

"The Pakistani military is putting a lot of fight into this," she said. But she warned that even if they win this battle, the war against the Taliban would not necessarily be over.

"This is not the first offensive in Swat -- it's actually the fourth," she said. "Each time Taliban has proven capable of regrouping and returning to this area."

She cautioned that the huge refugee camps the conflict is creating could be "the perfect recruiting grounds for the Taliban to prey on."




BrotherHood for Life!

Cruelbreed
05-16-2009, 07:20 PM
I like how they rename the Force Protection Cougar to Mastiff, kind of interesting. From cat to dog haha. Well it says some good things about Force Protection, they're in South Carolina I believe. The Cougar works and hopefully it gets better.