SMP Vs. Civvy vehicles

From: Robin Craig (therobincraig@home.com)
Date: Thu Mar 16 2000 - 22:05:26 PST


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Okay, I must add by two bobs worth (only a Brit will get that one). The
SMP or Standard Military pattern vehicles a la M135 or the M38A1's etc.
are great for the job they were intended, but as we all know all too
well most of the time units just need runabouts for the every day Joe
jobs. The cost of developing SMP vehicles and the specs that go with
them are horrendous, as we are all taxpayers we are now demanding our
military to be accountable for the gobs of cash that they spend.

With that in mind, and common sense engaged, here is the way that it is
going, in case you hadn't worked it out yet.

In Canada, the Iltis utility vehicle, which was licensed produced by
Bombardier at about $60K CDN per unit cost to the Canuck taxpayer. Once
that, they managed, after having been paid for all the set up costs etc.
by the first order to secure a contract for the Belgians at about $39K
CDN per unit. So the poor old Canuck taxpayer paid for " local economic
spin off" in La Belle Provence only for Bombardier to clean up on the
gravy order back to Europe, curiously the home of the original
manufacturer....... who was the winner there? Not the Taxpayer, and not
the core Canadian Truck manufacturing industry, 'cos there aint one for
that scale of vehicle in Canada. We buy from Uncle Sam below the
border......

The bigger vehicle in service at the time was the 5/4 ton (our parlance
there) Chev pick up. That was the purchase from the mid seventies, and
although it was a gas guzzler it was a civvy vehicle with a 12 / 24 volt
swap and green paint job. This did support the Canadian motor industry
as every GM dealer could be used to buy spares and every EME guy bought
a civvy Chev ( he wasn't stupid about commonality of spares was he!!)
When they started to come out of service a few years ago the 4 X 4 Chevs
were snapped up as good plough trucks. At the same time the infill
CUCV's also came out of service and were a better buy for the civvy
contractors as they have the 6.2l diesel.

A major error was made at this time as in Canada the Iltis and the 5/4
ton should have been replaced with one fleet of vehicles based on the GM
platform, hence giving commonality of spares and assuring a long term
availability too. While I am a devotee of the Land Rover marquee I can
also see the merits of a domestic North American product. Now we are
stuck with the LSVW which is a licence build of the Iveco 40.10, and the
Iltis replacement fiasco drags on with more delays and no decisions on
the SMP vehicle, although it is widely known that GM will get the
portion of the contract for a green painted 12/24 volt civvy vehicle, as
this is the only available "domestic" product. The quantities don't
merit the likes of Dodge etc. even caring about it I can assure you,
not when our procurement system gives then the gears over specs that are
never used.

Drive around any Canadian forces base and you will see vehicles parked
for months on end, expensive specialized military trucks. We have to
understand that the bang for the buck for alot of this equipment can be
gained by going to the civvy truck makers and getting them to paint the
product IRR or CARC and slapping a 12/24 volt system on and a convoy
light system, pintle hitch and a rifle rack. By doing this you might
just be able to afford some of the APC's and MBT's (if you can really
justify them, as Canada cant now, the Leopard upgrade is the last MBT we
will see here, I bet you dollars to doughnuts on that one).

The North American CUCV is quite a liveable truck, parts will be around
for suspension, tranny , engines etc. for years as they are the same as
the civvy counterparts.

Our bigger 10 ton truck the HLVW (licence built by now defunct UTDC,
bought out by Bombardier and now making rail cars) or Steyr Percheron as
it was originally called is a great truck, 6 X 6 and all that, but
expensive as all hell again, why not just add on to what the US was
making, Oh but wait what is this now, a licence build by Stewart and
Stevenson on the FMTV............ here we go again.........

No, folks we have to wake up and smell the coffee, most SMP trucks
should go the way of the DODO in favour of the off the shelf trucks. You
just cant justify it any more, believe me, my taxes aren't getting any
lighter....

Radical Robin..........



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