Wanted (by 2015): As Many as 600 Tactical Armoured Patrol Vehicles for CF

Remember this eight months ago?

Armoured vehicle upgrade and acquisitions

This week, MERX had the latest:

.... REQUIREMENTS

The Department of National DEFENCE (DND) has a requirement for a fleet of Tactical Armoured Patrol Vehicles (TAPV), with an estimated initial purchase of 500 and an option for up to 100 additional vehicles. DND also has a requirement for logistics support for the life expectancy of the TAPV, estimated at 25 years.

The TAPV is a wheeled combat vehicle that will fulfill a wide variety of roles on the battlefield. Canada requires one platform, comprised of two variants: the General Utility variant and the Reconnaissance variant. It will have a high degree of tactical mobility and provide a very high degree of survivability to its crew.

PROCUREMENT MILESTONES

The estimated procurement milestones are as follows:
Request for Proposal (RFP) Release Fall 2010
TAPV Acquisition Contract Award Fall 2011
TAPV Support Contract Award Fall 2011
Initial Operating Capability 2013
Completion of TAPV Deliveries 2015 ....

Keep in mind, though, that this is very much an initial first step in the buying process:

.... The purpose of this (Solicitation of Interest and Qualification) is to qualify vehicles as well as their Original Equipment Manufacturers through a formal evaluation of selected mandatory technical requirements. Canada encourages a supplier pre-qualification process when complex procurements will likely result in high proposal preparation costs to industry. By using a pre-qualification phase to initiate the procurement process, respondents evaluated as not having sufficient technical capabilities to carry out the project are informed before they undertake the effort and expense of preparing a response to a complete RFP ....

Translation: We're looking for an initial short-list of possible vehicles and manufacturers. This allows us and companies to save time and money during the more formal process because vehicles/companies not even close to what we need won't have to do all the more-expensive bidding work.

Interested in more details? You can download the "Selected Vehicle System Requirements" annex to the full bid package here (via Milnet.ca).