Canadian Armed forces benefit from SA technology

[Springbok]

As a South African I felt a real twinge of pride when I was watching CTV the other night. The report showed the Canadian armed forces taking delivery of their new high tech anti-mine vehicles called the "Nyala". These vehicles are designed and manufactured by Armscor in South Africa. Littleton Engineering Works is the company that has been designing and testing mine resistant vehicles for years. When I mean testing, I refer to actual use in combat during South Africa`s extensive anti-terrorist bush war. Most of our military vehicles are named after animals, hence "Nyala" for the new generation of anti mine vehicles. Our high tech main battle tank is called the "Olifant" which means elephant and the predecessor to the Nyala was called the "Buffle" which means Buffalo.

The Nyala is based on the design of a combat proven vehicle called the "Casspir" which was the name of the guy instrumental in its design. I scrounged through my war pictures and dug out a few.

Here is a Casspir that hit three mines rigged to blow in unision. An anti tank mine was placed in the road rut by terrorists and it was linked to two soviet cheese mines planted in the middle of the road. In this case, the front left wheel detonated the main charge. The driver and co-driver are pictured here inspecting the damage. After replacing the front suspension, drive shaft, axle and wheel, we drove on. Based on this, I think the boys in Afghanistan will be safe! Only problem is that your ears ring for weeks afterwards.

Here is a Buffel in convoy. We had to stop after detecting the mine and wait at a safe distance while the engineers took care of it in a controled detonation.

This foto was taken by a friend of mine who was an engineer working at Armscor. Here they took a standard 20 tonne army troop carrier (truck) and detonated 1 anti tank mine under it. There was nothing left. The Nyala took the brunt of three with little damage and no injuries to the troops inside.
troop carrier (12 combat troops) with either 20 mm cannon or a 90mm gun. When we did ground ops as paratroopers, we always used the Buffel or Casspir and we were supported by Ratel 20`s or Ratel 90`s.

Last but not least, we also manufactured the G5 howitzer which is still regarded as the most advanced artillery piece in the world. A mobile version is the G6 which is mounted on a Ratel chassis. In his book on the first Gulf war, Stormin Norman mentions how concerned he was about the G5 howitzers which SA had sold to Saddam a year previously. Intel showed that they were dug in a defensive line so Norman simply attacked from the rear and the Iraqis did not get the time to bring the guns to bear. The Yanks walked off with 200 G5`s and whisked them back to the US where they were copied. This foto was taken in Angola.

We also have an attack chopper called the "Rooivalk" which means Red Hawk. It pisses on the Apache. It will try and find a foto but google the name in the interim.

All fotos deleted to make space on fotobucket....PM if you want the pics

[gryphon]

[WJflyer]

We already had the Nyala in service before as a route proving vehicle. Only problem was that there were only a handful (re: less than 10), so spare parts and them being the odd balls in the CF ground forces caused problems when we sent them Afghanistan. The new Nyala's are good picks, and are fitted with Kongsberg M151 Remote Weapons System, plus armoured glass gun ports for the troops inside to fire out of.

There wasn't much in the way of a true competition for the APV. The only competitors were both the Krauss Maffei Wegmann Dingo 2, and ADI's Bushmaster. However, both the Krauss Maffei and ADI vehicles are significantly larger than the Nyala and what CF wanted, but do not exclude either the ADI or Krauss Maffei vehicles; due to the fact these vehicles are larger, they are more suited towards other roles, such as an armoured mine-proof ambulance, logistics, and other vehicles, and such, they may be purchased in the future as the CF identified needs for a bigger mine-proof vehicle.

[Springbok]

Thanks for the pics Gryphon and to WJ for the additional info. I have the misfortune of being shipped off to hospital in an earlier version of the ambulance Nyala. I broke an ankle during a night HALO training jump. It was a damn uncomfortable ride, especially with the medic trying to get an IV banged in while were pounding through the bush!

The only real trick when using the Nyala or other anti mine vehicles is to ensure that everyone stays strapped in tight. Plenty of chaps lost their lives when they hit a mine and made hard contact with an unforgiving roof. We also lost chaps when drivers were speeding and overturned their vehicles. They are very unforgiving that way. I have even seen guys detonate a mine while perched on the roof.....quite a comical sight to see these dudes hanging from thorn trees after the dust had settled

[WJflyer]

When I said we only had a handful, I mean, we really only did have a handful, as from additional digging, we only had 3 in service before the additional purchase of the 50 as patrol vehicles. We also operated the earlier Mamba's, which were purchased thanks to the Swedish Army which drew Canadian attention to the Mamba’s potential as a route-proving vehicle. Sweden bought four Mambas for peacekeeping duties in Western Sahara. Later the Swedish Mambas were later sent to Bosnia exposing the CF to these vehicles inspiring a DND purchase. Also, the Nyala's and Mamba's were purchased due to their drivetrain similarity with the Mercedes-Benz Unimog 4x4 light trucks, a small fleet of which were serving with the CF in Europe (before we purchased the Italian LSVW... which proved to be very troublesome).

We have a history of purchasing German equipment, or German-inspired equipment. The Itlis jeep was designed for the German Bundeswehr, the replacement G-wagen was the replacement for the Itlis in German service, and the Leopard tanks were purchased in Germany as well. The HLVW is Austrian, but the truck uses a German diesel engine.