Commandos seek $99M in special-ops equipment
Canada’s special forces have put together a shopping list of new equipment, ranging from armoured vehicles to radios, that they plan to acquire.
The purchases will unfold over the next 10 years and could include up to $99 million in new equipment for the Canadian Special Operations Regiment (CSOR) based in Petawawa, and up to $249 million for new armoured vehicles to be used by various units in the Ottawa-based special forces command.
“The CSOR equipment project is aimed at procuring sufficient mission-essential equipment to allow for the contribution to independent special operations task forces,” Maj. Steve Hawken, spokesman for the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command (CANSOFCOM), noted in an email.
Although existing Canadian Forces equipment is being used, CSOR needs some specialized gear. Those items will vary from boots to radios to crew-served weapons (weapons that require more than one person to operate), Hawken said. “For security reasons, we cannot provide specific quantities or capabilities that relate to operations,” he added.
Delivery of the new gear is to be wrapped up between 2021 and 2025.
New armoured vehicles will be delivered to CANSOFCOM starting in 2022. Those will be used mainly by CSOR and Joint Task Force 2, the special forces and counterterrorism unit based in Ottawa.
CANSOFCOM will also buy commercial-style vehicles that are armoured. New protective gear for the Canadian Joint Incident Response Unit, or CJIRU, will also be purchased. That special forces unit, located at Canadian Forces Base Trenton, deals with chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats.
The command will work with Defence Research and Development Canada and other DND organizations, as well as industry and universities, to acquire the improved protective gear.
The Canadian air force is also looking at the purchase of small aircraft capable of conducting surveillance for special forces. Those planes will be outfitted with various sensors and cameras.
Not all of the command’s planned equipment projects have proceeded smoothly. Earlier this year, a program to provide special forces with new armoured vehicles for the Arctic was cancelled.
The government was supposed to buy 17 vehicles for CANSOFCOM, as well as examine an option to purchase five more later. The project, expected to have cost around $60 million, would have seen the acquisition of what the military was calling a “marginal terrain vehicle.” or MTV.
Industry sources say funding issues were behind the decision to cancel the project. A similar proj- ect for the Canadian Army had been sidelined earlier.
Dan Blouin, a Department of National Defence spokesman, noted in an email that “after a thorough examination of the MTV’s capabilities and limitations, training requirements, acquisition and sustainment costs, it was determined that it is not an essential requirement for CANSOFCOM.”
“As a result, it was decided to no longer pursue this procurement,” he added.
The new armoured vehicles were to be capable of operating in snow and desert terrain. They were also to be equipped with a significant amount of protection from explosive devices and gunfire.
Delivery of the vehicles had been planned for 2016.
The Canadian military currently uses a small fleet of BV-206s for northern operations but those vehicles were purchased in the 1980s.
For security reasons, we cannot provide specific quantities or capabilities that relate to operations.