Thread: Nary having issues- Army 6x6 replacement

Following on from this thread..
http://www.aulro.com/afvb/general-ch...perenties.html

This article appeared in today's Age.

Combat vehicles hit by glitches

Rafael Epstein

December 29, 2010

Quite contrary: The Nary.

NEW fighting vehicles for Australia's elite soldiers have been described as white elephants that are plagued by dodgy electronics, are too heavy to be loaded on to army cargo helicopters, and are still not in Afghanistan - despite being bought more than two years ago for nearly $50 million.
Thirty-one Nary patrol vehicles were bought in August 2008 under the watch of former defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon.
The purchase was made without going to tender for ''reasons of operational urgency''. But despite the rush to receive them all by the start of 2009, not one has been sent to Afghanistan or earmarked for deployment.
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Called ''Narys'' after SAS Warrant Officer David Nary, who died in 2005, the next-generation vehicles were bought for soldiers in the Special Operations Task Group in Afghanistan, as replacements for their ageing modified Land Rovers.
In November 2007 the British Ministry of Defence bought the same vehicles from manufacturer Supacat and had them working in Afghanistan within months. It now has hundreds of operational vehicles.
Australia's Defence Department has told The Age the deployment of the first batch of Narys ''is on track'' and that some will be operating in the second half of next year - three years after they were delivered.
But a defence industry source close to the project said: ''One would like to think that this is a capability that should have been [in Afghanistan] by now.''
Industry insiders have criticised army engineers and Defence's procurement arm, the Defence Materiel Organisation, because they struggled to merge two ''off the shelf'' purchases - the British vehicles and their US-designed electronics and communications systems.
One major problem with the vehicles has been interference between transmissions from different pieces of equipment.
''If you have one system operating on a particular radio frequency, it might interfere with your satellite communications equipment, which is operating on different frequencies … they did have those issues,'' said one industry source.
It is understood these problems extended to secret systems used to stop eavesdroppers obtaining classified information during its transmission to or from the vehicles.
Next year the government will ask manufacturers to bid to supply 50 new patrol vehicles. However, The Age understands that tender has been delayed by a log jam of requests for consideration of other defence contracts by the top secret National Security Committee.
Manufacturers are so dismayed they are pushing the government to issue an extra tender - a separate contract to integrate the onboard electronics with the next batch of vehicles.
One source slammed the Defence Materiel Organisation, saying ''what they love to do is interfere, and do this Australianisation of stuff''.
The department did not respond to questions about the delayed tender, and about whether there had been past electrical problems.
The statement from Defence says the Narys' onboard systems are now ''functional and the electrical system provides adequate power''.
Many elite soldiers in Perth have completed driver training on Narys, but the vehicles still haven't received initial operational certification because of what one source described as ''limited functionality'' of the onboard electronics.
The computers are designed to show drivers and navigators a wide array of information coming from remote bases and pilotless drone aircraft. However, army technicians have been unable to consistently transmit information.
To protect soldiers from improvised explosive devices, Defence has given the Narys nearly a tonne of extra armour. But at more than 10 tonnes, some of the vehicles exceed weight limits imposed on the rear doors of the army's ageing Chinook 47D transport helicopters, so cannot be driven into them.
The British Army relaxed the weight limit on its Chinooks so the vehicles could enter. The Australian Army can make do by suspending the large vehicles beneath the helicopters, but this is considered more difficult and dangerous and uses more fuel.
Defence says there is no requirement to carry Narys inside cargo helicopters and they can be transported on cargo planes.
The British-built Narys carry heavy-calibre machineguns and grenade launchers, and are heavier and have more complex technology than Land Rovers and Bushmasters, currently used by Australian special forces soldiers for everything from reconnaissance to ''capture or kill'' missions.
The vehicles' new system promises to integrate satellite communications, video surveillance and radio communications with electronic warfare counter-measures designed to set off improvised roadside bombs before a vehicle is on top of the explosive charge.
A special forces source suggested not everyone with an interest in the deployment of Narys would be entirely unhappy with the delay.
''In some ways, command is happy not to deploy them because they cost too much; if you lose one of them it's worth two or three Bushmasters,'' the source said.


So you guys wanting one of the Perentie 6x6"s will have to put your chequebooks away for another 6 months

Originally Posted by DeeJay

So you guys wanting one of the Perentie 6x6"s will have to put your chequebooks away for another 6 months

maybe 18months.....