Soldiers to get ride of a lifetime

By SCOTT MacLEOD

Twenty tonnes of steel, weapons and electronics are briefly airborne as one of the Army's new light armoured vehicles leaps over a small hill.

It is a brilliantly fine day at Waiouru, and the Defence Force is formally accepting its latest purchase - a high-tech $6 million behemoth that is meant to protect our soldiers until 2028.

The LAV III hums quietly as it clambers through the scrub, swings alongside a river and lets fly with a 7.62mm machine gun.

Nearly 600 metres away, small flashes pepper the hull of a World War II vintage Valentine tank.

Then the main cannon opens up in three-round bursts, sending 25mm shells punching into the Valentine.

This demonstration was important for the Army.

Watching from two large tents nearby were up to a hundred officers, politicians and journalists from as far away as Canada, where the LAV was built.

Several had just given speeches about the LAV's virtues while acknowledging that the $672 million purchase of 105 vehicles was controversial.

Critics - especially in the United States - say the LAV is too lightly armoured to withstand hits from the rocket-propelled grenades being used by Iraqi guerrillas.

It has a wide turning circle that makes it vulnerable in villages, they say. The eight wheels provide less grip in swampy terrains than tracks and its heavy turrets makes it prone to rolling over.

But it was hard to find anyone at Waiouru yesterday willing to criticise the LAV.

"The LAV is an absolute marvel," said the chief of Canada's defence forces, General Raymond Henault.

"We have been operating it for more than four years. It did superb work in Ethiopia, we have used it in Afghanistan, and we have operated it in both urban and rural areas."

New Zealand's Defence Chief, Air Marshal Bruce Ferguson, said the tracks v wheels debate had been raging since the 1930s, with no clear winner.

He said the LAV was the right vehicle for New Zealand and could be used in peacekeeping and "mid-level" warfare.

The New Zealand LAV is unique. Its body is virtually the same as that of the US Army's new Stryker vehicle, but it has an "Anzac" turret with a Bush Master cannon.

The New Zealand LAV is controlled by a crew of three, and there is room in the back for seven men.

Some of the gear is so state-of-the-art that the Army will not allow photographs to be taken inside. There is a second reason for this - something called an "automatic fire suppression system" that does not react kindly to camera flashes.

The Weekend Herald yesterday went for a test drive in one of the LAVs and found it remarkably smooth over rough terrain. The crew put this down to the high-tech suspension system.

The LAV's display was impressive and it had to be. Was this steel hulk worth 12 family homes in Central Auckland? The LAV has 25 years to answer that question.