http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2006/06/01/pf-1609980.html
June 1, 2006
Forces buy more armoured vehicles
OTTAWA (CP) - The Canadian Forces is buying 25 more South African Nyala armoured vehicles for its Afghanistan mission.
The $31-million purchase from BAE Land Systems OMC comes after Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said the army's G-Wagon light armoured vehicles would be pulled off patrol duty in Afghanistan.
The G-Wagons have proved vulnerable to roadside bombs.
The latest purchase of Nyalas comes on top of a $64-million order for 50 of the vehicles placed last fall with General Dynamics Land Systems of Canada. Those vehicles were delivered this spring and the new Nyalas should start arriving in September.
The Nyalas, which weigh 8,400 kilograms fully loaded, include bullet-resistant windows and offer protection against mines and booby traps.
They carry machine-guns or grenade launchers which gunners fire from inside the vehicle.
The G-Wagons were purchased as a quick replacement for the flimsy and aging Iltis jeeps that were standard in the army for years.
But the lightly armoured G-Wagons, made by Daimler Chrysler, were no match for the improvised explosive devices - many of them powerful - planted by Afghan insurgents. Five Canadians have died while riding in G-Wagons hit by blasts.
The Nyalas can carry six people at a top speed of 105 kilometres an hour.