... On the light side of the spectrum, I think we have need of something that fills the liaison (G-wagon) to cargo (LSVW, MilCOTS), troop caring (LSVW) and special purpose roles (G-wagon,LSVW, MilCOTS). In the civilian world this would represent everything from jeep/SUV, to pick-up truck and full-sized van … in the military we have typically used pickups in the van role. What I propose we need is a single vehicle type that comes in different wheel base lengths and different bodies. This simplifies logistics and reduces training requirements. For each wheel base, I would envision a full-length cab variant (in a G-Wagon/SUV sort of style). I would also see an extended pickup cab (2 to 3 crew + pers kit) and crew cab (2-3 crew + 2 passengers) that would be common to both the standard and extended wheel base versions.
All vehicles would have MMG/HMG/AGL mounts (either light RWS or a machine gunner’s hatch). A lightweight General Purpose Vehicle fleet might consist of:
- Short Wheel Base
- Jeep-style comd & liaison vehicle with 3 crew & 2 passengers
- Jeep-style provost vehicle with 3 crew
- open/soft-top Jeep-style comd & recce vehicle with 3 crew
- Standard Wheel Base
- Jeep-style liaison vehicle with 3 crew & 4 passengers
- Pickup Extended Cab-style cargo vehicle with 2 crew
- Pickup Crew Cab-style cargo vehicle with 3 crew & 2 passengers
- Misc Pickup Extended Cab-style SEV with 2 crew
- Misc Pickup Crew Cab-style SEV with 3 crew & 2 passengers
- Extended Wheel Base
- Nyala layout liaison & TCV with 3 crew & 6 passengers
- Pickup Extended Cab-style Ambulance with 2 crew up-front
- Misc Pickup Extended Cab-style SEV with 2 crew
- Misc Pickup Crew Cab-style SEV with 3 crew & 2 passengers
The vehicles must be designed to be armoured (because armouring vehicles as an after-thought tends to results in unexpected and/or premature mechanical failures), but only the vehicles going to CMBGs should actually be delivered with armour (and vehicles going to Army schools should be delivered with armour simulating ballast). The purchase plan should bring us to FOC within two years and commit to 300 – 500 new vehicles annually for the life of the fleet. As new vehicles come in, they will take the armour (or sim-armour) from brigade & TE vehicles, the down-armoured vehicles would then cascade to PRes, bases, Air Force and other users (in some cases eventually reducing the size of our blue fleet). We would allow ourselves to retire vehicles (from anywhere in the fleet) that are old, tired, or significantly damaged.