Decisions, decisions

Today sees yet another story about the soon-to-be-leased Leopard 2's:

Leopard tank troops in Afghanistan are going to have to drive their old battered machines a little longer.

Maj. Dave Broomfield, commander of the squadron, said he's been told that a batch of 20 new modern Leopards the federal government is expected to lease will go to another unit that is training to come to Kandahar.

The decision is good for Canada's armoured corps, but a let down for his troops who are going to have to work the 30-year-old tanks through the heat of the Afghan summer without air conditioning, he said Thursday.

"We will be carrying on with the Leopard C2," said Broomfield, of the Edmonton-based A Squadron, Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians).

"It looks like the soldiers of C Squadron will be getting the new tank. Obviously the guys are excited for the corps, but at the same time there is probably a might bit of disappointment."

While he gets at least one point right - Dave Broomfield is a friendly guy, at least as I remember him from school - I wish that John Cotter would do a little better with his detail work. Specifically, although the CF confusingly uses the C2 designation for our Leos, the tanks we currently operate are Leopard 1's, not Leopard 2's (the C2 is a Leo 1).

He'd also do well to confirm a story like this before he publishes it across the country. I've asked some questions myself, and people who should know about this supposed allocation of assets don't know anything about it. In fact, it seems unlikely to all of us who discussed this that DND would go to all the trouble to lease twenty tanks from the Germans and then ship them first across the Atlantic to Wainwright for a few months before flying them all the way back to Kandahar. Besides, one assumes that one of the reasons we're pulling these particular tanks, which are as close to turn-key as you can get, would be to deploy them in theatre as quickly as possible.

Oh, the troopers will still need to repaint them and fiddle with communications and such. They'll definitely need to train on the new Leos before wandering around Panjwaii with them. But the ramp-up for these particular tanks is going to be lighter than with just about any other units the CF could have procured.

Having said that, I suspect it's going to take some serious pushing to get the tanks over to Afghanistan in time for the worst of the summer heat. This is a decision that should have been made in December. Making it in April unnecessarily complicates things. Last week LGen Leslie said a decision was going to be made within a week. This week, I'm hearing it might take up to another two weeks to make a formal announcement. That's a whole steaming pile of "hurry up and wait" when we can't really afford to.

Let's also not lose sight of the fact that the CF is acquiring these tanks for more than just their air-conditioning. The "M" in the 2A6M designation stands for "Mine" - as in up-armouring to protect from mines and their close cousins, IED's. These tanks will give the troops more protection. With a 120mm gun instead of the 105mm on the Leo 1's, the new tanks will also give the troops a bit more of a punch. In fact, the Leopard 2A6M's will offer a whole host of improvements over the current equipment, not just a cooler working environment.

Maj Broomfield might well be right about one thing: the current rotation of tankers might not see the new Leos during their time in theatre. But if that happens, I suspect it will be because the government didn't make decisions quickly enough to get them there in time, not because someone at NDHQ decided to send them to Alberta first.