Interesting Note on Canadian Future Armor.

JaM · #1 June 13th, 2006, 11:24 AM

M8 has 3 degree of protection. 1st. protect against heavy MG AP rounds.with this configuration it can be air dropped.
2nd. degree protect it against autocannons and 3rd. protect against RPGs and ATGMs. Is is not a problem transport few M8 in one plane and addon armor in other. Armor can be attached on place.

PlasmaKrab · #2 June 13th, 2006, 12:54 PM

So you cannot have at the same time an air-transportable and notably-armored track on the ground, right?

I know it would just take, what, 30 minutes with the crew and a 2-ton field crane to get the armour on, but that can be the 30 minutes between life and death in case of a hot airdrop on, say, an occupied airstrip.
Notionally even better than not being able to fit any uparmouring at all, if you ask me.

It all goes with different doctrines anyway, so yes, why not give it a try for a fully light-armored-standoff force?

As for "modular airtransportable" armor or whatever, it boils down to the decades-old C-130 requirement. If countries are willing to put up deployable forces, then where is the long-range, heavy-load, heavy-duty plane for them? I'll have to check the specs on the A400M, and the An-70 and An-74 could also be worth a look.

JaM · #3 June 13th, 2006, 01:52 PM

If you will deploy Stryker MGS as a Airdrop it will be dead meat much sooner than M8.BTW any wheeled vehicle that is dropped from plane will have serious problems with wheels after drop... If you are dropping a vehicle from Plane, crew is never inside, so it will take time to get into the vehicle... So you are limited to make land with plane and unload vehicles classical way, so then you can have uparmored M8 without problems with much better resistance than Stryker

whdonnelly · #4 June 13th, 2006, 02:32 PM

Another weakness of the Stryker is the small ammo loadout. How does the M8 compare?

thatguy96 · #5 June 13th, 2006, 06:35 PM

I don't understand how wheeled vehicles have problems after a drop. Wheeled vehicles are airdropped all the time, this doesn't make any sense. How many countries with vehicle drop capabilities drop crews in vehicles anyways? I don't see how an XM8 with protection only from machine guns is any less vulnerable than a Stryker either. Do you have any reputable sources to back these complaints up?

Zipuli · #6 June 15th, 2006, 02:11 AM

Russians drop BMD's with crews inside...

Cameronius · #7 June 15th, 2006, 03:05 AM

The XM8 will never be an option. Any vehicles produced domestically will always be given the contracts, no matter how inadequate they are on the battlefield. The Cougar and Grizzly are prime examples of this. Too much defense spending abroad=political suicide.
Also I think that the consideration is more for air-transportablity rather than air-dropablity.

JaM · #8 June 15th, 2006, 08:06 AM

Sorry guys, Did you ever tryed drive through nice plowed field after rain in wheeled vehicle? I did. In SKOT APC and we stopped after 15m, and we needed a tracked egineer vehicle to got out... BMP-2s had no such problems... So imagine how long will Stryker MGS survive... you can lower pressure in wheels, but then you will be unable to fire your main gun becouse whole vehicle will be unstable...