Wheeled or Tracked?

[PhillTaj]

21st century warfare has certain requirements, different from the cold war years.

Some have argued that a medium, wheeled force is the way to go. Canada is currently envisioning an all wheeled force as the best way to meet its requirements.

However, tracked vehicles have certain advantages. For instance, two canadian soldiers were killed recently in Afghanistan when their LAV III APC rolled over. That incident could have been avoided with a tracked AFV.

Wheeled vehicles dont have the same all terrain mobility either.... For instance, wheeled AFV's have a hard or impossible time navigating difficult terrain and can break down.

On the other hand, Wheeled AFV's are light, cheap, and ideal for peace enforcement.

It would be nice too see the CV9035 in Canadian colors but the present defense staff is too dead set towards an all wheeled force that my dreams will remain unfulfilled.

What do you guys prefer?

 

[Killjoy]

I would go for wheeled vehicles. With the right design the vehicle can be as stable as a tracked vehicle. Overall wheeled vehicles are easier to maintain, cheaper to manufacture and have greater operational range in most cases.

Cross country ability is a moot point. The South African G6 chassis has as good a cross country ability as the Centurion used here if not beter.

 

[psyclops]

What do you want to do with your wheeled or tracked vehicle? That's going to matter when you're choosing one or the other. For most situations, a good 8x8 will probably suffice. There are places and conditions where tracks will give you better mobility than wheels. If you want to make sure you can go as many places as possible (obviously still not everywhere, as M1s can get bogged down in Iraq), then go with tracks. If you're figuring on being mostly road-bound, definitely go with wheels. The G6, for example, does reportedly have good cross-country mobility, but it's also a very different vehicle than the LAV-type vehicles that are gaining popularity. Ideally, I'd like a combination of wheels and tracks, for light/medium brigades and for heavy brigades, respectively. Obviously, that takes a lot of money, and not every country can afford to do it. Given Canada's likely use of its assets, wheels sounds like a reasonable choice.

 

[Ding]

From the Malaysian perspective...

we used to have a lot of wheeled apc and ifv namely the condor and the sibmas, but in recent years the trend in Malaysia is to go to tracked vehicles ie: KIFV, MIFV and the Adnan. we are retiring the condor but keeping the sibmas.

point of interest... we have been operating the scorpion light tank for years now and we are happy with it.

I think the choice between tracked and wheeled vehicle would mainly depend on the type of terrain that you are expecting to operate in.

 

[Pursuit Curve]

Hey, I have been a big fan of the CV90 IFV, and also the CV120. I think the Canadian Military have been lobbied to the teeth by GM regarding this amtter, all one has to do is tune in to the fight right now between the "Stryker" lobby and the M113 "Gavin" lobby in teh US Army right now, all very impassioned and full of experts.

I would like to hear a soldiers perspective if there are any here?

 

[Big-E]

Wheels = fast light vehicles
Track = heavy all terrain

depends on what ya need