G-Wagons, CDN Forces & Belinda Stronach?

The first 60 Gelaendenwagen vehicles, "G Wagon" for short, produced by Mercedes Benz in Graz, Austria, will be deployed to Afghanistan in March for use during Operation ATHENA. An additional 40 vehicles will be delivered to the CF shortly thereafter and the remainder of the fleet will be fielded over the next several months to units in Canada. Delivery will be completed by August 2005.

A $126-million contract was awarded to Mercedes Benz Canada on October 21, for the procurement of 802 G Wagons and 118 armour protection systems (APS). The contract includes an unfunded option to buy up to 499 additional vehicles and up to 135 additional APS kits at an additional cost of $99.4 million—an additional 42 APS were purchased under this option in December 2003 for $4.44 million bringing the total number of APS kits to 160.

YEAH TEAM!
linky

The legendary G-Wagon has remained virtually unchanged in it's design since 1979, except for various safety and technology upgrades. According to Dieter Zetsche, head of the Mercedes Car Group, "Mercedes-Benz wrote automotive history by always ensuring that the G-Class remained state of-the-art over the past 26 years, and it will continue to offer its customers the very latest technology in the future.”

Production for the G-Class will remain at the Magna Steyr Plant in Graz, Austria, where over 185,000 have been produced throughout the years.

YEAH TEAM!

linky

[Belinda Stronach] also commented: "The increased vehicle project management and assembly contracts awarded to Magna Steyr provides increased opportunities to source more parts content from Magna's other automotive systems companies and groups,"

oops

Turns out:
"Canada's Magna International Inc. acquired control of Steyr-Daimler-Puch in 1998, giving Magna, one of the world's largest auto suppliers, the ability to produce whole vehicles. Today, Magna-Steyr also produces the Mercedes-Benz E-Class, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Chrysler Voyager, BMW X3 and Saab 9-3 convertible.Canada's Magna International Inc. acquired control of Steyr-Daimler-Puch in 1998, giving Magna, one of the world's largest auto suppliers, the ability to produce whole vehicles. Today, Magna-Steyr also produces the Mercedes-Benz E-Class, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Chrysler Voyager, BMW X3 and Saab 9-3 convertible."

http://www.canadiandriver.com/roadtest/05g-class.htm

We definately should have bought the hummers instead.

Wow, never seen any in Petawawa

So, Ride, in your view the G-Wagen should have been automatically ruled out because of the Stronach-Steyr link? :?:

No, they are as good as anything else, and it's not a bad thing at all that they are made in Canada. Keeping the jobs here is something that I would support, as long as there was a fair & open selection process.

I just don't like hearing this sort of thing after the fact. The helo's and this latest blather over the C130J's are a great example. The troops we put in harms way need specific equipment and just because it's not made here does not make their needs any less.

I would rather see us remake something like the Cadillac Gage V100 armored car for this sort of thing. If we're going to use an up-armored truck, why not just use an armored car.

There might be some confusion with the "Duro" prototype. Apparently a few are out and about on trials. There maybe a couple similar ones (offered by other manufacturers) running around as well.

Did it look something like:

http://www.gdlscanada.com/pdf/duro_apvspecs.pdf

We need a ford focus with twin .50 cals strapped on top of it. great gas mileage. Even more ridiculous then my suggestion is the fact that some bureaucrat has likely already considered it.

The basic G-wagon is really just a SUV. You can go to you're MB dealer and look at one. We are up-armoring 118 of the 802 G-wagons to a NATO level-1 (proof against .22 long rifle, 380 ACP), which is basically proof against shrapnel. Weight of basic version is 5423 lbs.but the up-armor is probably more, depending on what they use. No weapons are mounted but I understand a GPMG pintel mount ring could be added.
http://www.forces.gc.ca/site/Feature_St ... -2_f_e.asp

The original, standard hummers were unarmored, and weighed in at 7,700 lbs. The armored version, (used my marines, TOW launcher, etc) weighs in at some 8000lbs and I'd guess it was at least level-2, which is proof to pistol size rounds, up to 357 Mag. These are constantly being up-armored, up to level-3 (rifle fire) and can mount anything from 7.62 GPMG's to TOWs.

The Coyote is a 14 ton, 8 wheel, level-3 armored APC, mounting a 25mm autocannon. Substantancially more than the average jeep.

It's horses for courses though. The average green SUV is fine as long as you're mostly on the road and no one is shooting at you, and if you're using you're war gear all the time you might be wearing it out before you need it. It's a compromise, either way.

For the Hummer thing, the CF are using some, so it's quite possible that you saw one in alberta, but they are only used by the JTF-2 and not by our regular forces.