Sunday, September 7, 2014

Australia places order for 89 Special Operations Vehicle-Commando (SOV-Cdo)

(Canberra) The Australian Government has recently placed an order for 89 British made Special Operations Vehicle-Commando aka the High Mobility Transporter Extenda 6X6 aka the 'Coyote'.

Based on the successful Mobility Weapon-Mounted Installation Kit (MWMIK) aka Jackal, the vehicles are designed on the premise that armouring vehicles to kingdom come results on losing the ability to be mobile, and with your troops battened down, that human factor of quickly accessing the situation is lost. Yes, the vehicles are open to direct weapons fire, but they are not designed to go toe to toe but rather to allow troops to go places where others can't and thus deny the enemy the possibility of predicting where you are coming from.

                                                                                                (This video is well worth watching)
The British have around a 1,000 of these vehicles, which impressed the Australians so much, they purchased 31 Jackals in 2011 which they renamed as the 'Nary' after Australian SAS Warrant Officer David Nary who was killed in an accident in 2005.

Well, the Australians have followed up that purchase with an additional purchase of 89 Coyotes which is the bigger brother of the Jackal and is designed to carry stores or allow long distance long range patrols in desert areas (which Australia has lots of).