Canada is holding up some new vehicle purchases, likely due to budgets.
"The Close Combat Vehicle project has been delayed to ensure that resources are geared toward key procurement priorities of DND," Kristen Ward of the Public Works CCV project wrote in the letter. The document was leaked to the Ottawa Citizen Wednesday.
Ward wrote that the statement of requirements for the project, which was to be issued this month, will not be sent out. She gave no indication of when the CCV program might restart, sparking suggestions from defence industry representatives that the project will ultimately be cancelled.
Although details on the cost of the project haven't been released, some estimates have the price tag at as high as $2 billion. According to the CCV schedule, a contract was supposed to be in place by September.
The top priorities for the government now are to upgrade the army's fleet of light armoured vehicles and to purchase what the military is calling a tactical armoured patrol vehicle, according to Ward's letter.
By: Brant
Once upon a time, the Canadian Army was going to be an all-wheels army. Going to Afghanistan helped to change that, as they decided to send Leapard MBTs instead of holding out for buying the Mobile Gun System (tank gun mounted on an LAV-25). The CCV might have tracks or wheels, they don't seem to have decided - they might even have been refitted old German Marders - and anyway the whole question might be academic now.
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