Check it out. This is the Armored Combat Support Vehicle or ACSV,
nicknamed the Super Bison. We just gave a stack of them to help our Ukrainians
allies continue the fight and in just a few minutes I’m going to tell you why we
need even more here in Canada. I would also settle for a new pistol. Please.
Welcome to Front line, the Canadian Military's ageing fleet of armoured
vehicles have been undergoing the painstaking process of replacement
after decades of service in dusty conflicts like those we fought in Afghanistan.
You may already be familiar with Canada’s primary infantry fighting vehicle, the LAV 3 which already
had its glow up into the modernized Lav 6 but this story isn’t about these attention hogs. This is
about replacing the less pointy but equally sexy support vehicles that are so heavily relied on
outside of closing with and destroying the enemy. These are the LAV 2 Bison and the M113 TLAV.
Now instead of just vacuuming out the sand in these older vehicles,
the Canadian Government decided to dream big and went ahead with the much appreciated
purchase of 360 new vehicles from the defense company, General Dynamics. These are the ACSVs.
The price for these replacements sits around 3 billion dollars and
let me save you a paragraph here and just say that this number is a bit
more than what was originally specified. Don't fret, this figure was negotiated to
include new infrastructure to house and maintain them for the foreseeable future.
Another plus is how this contract will create 400 new jobs in sustainable employment on top
of the several thousand already involved throughout production and a part of
me really wants Ukrainian refugees to be part of this process, because it just feels right.
The ACSV will be built to overcome the problems we noticed after years working in Afghanistan, mostly
these issues revolve around breaking down or blowing up or breaking down and THEN blowing up.
Helping to do this will be the new suspension system, which will support a double V Shaped
Hull to protect from such IEDs and mines which together caused the majority of
Canadian Casualties. An improved seating design will also help ensure that you not
only survive that mine strike, but that you also have an intact spine afterwards.
By also updating the power unit, the vehicle is more reliable and capable of moving at speeds
of more than 100km. Although if you enjoy solid food, I wouldn't recommend doing this off road.
If you pair this with its advertised driving range of 600 km, you might just find that you're
the number one choice when your Russian friends are looking for a ride home. It’s
actually Ukraine and their Media to whom we owe the moniker Super Bison, given to the vehicle
after our donation of 39 units which just began rolling out on the front lines of Eastern Ukraine.
For Canada to make the contract whole again, these vehicles will be reordered
for their intended Canadian troops at an additional cost of 165 million.
The units that were given to Ukraine were the troop cargo variants but in total there are 8
different configurations Canada will receive, these are: ambulances, vehicle recovery,
engineering, mobile repair, electronic warfare, troop carrying, and command posts.
If we were to smack a 25mm auto cannon on one of these variants, you might have difficulty picking
it out of a crowd of LAV 6’s and this is because the ACSV is based on its scrappy older brother.
Yes, the Lav is the Jango Fett of the Canadian army infantry fighting vehicles
and in 2019, the last of the Lav 3s were upgraded to the improved Lav 6. Now it's
the ACSV’s time to shine by replacing those crusty support vehicles, the Bison and TLav.
Soon, I would expect to see Canada’s new ride birthing its own troops in such popular
destinations as the Wainwright and Shiloh training area. That is, as soon as we stop
giving them away. Which begs the question, will I have to visit Europe to get a ride in these?
Final deliveries of these vehicles were negotiated for 2025 but in this particular case I am fine
extending that deadline when it means we are pitching in for a worthy cause. After all,
the first deliveries are in the hands of Ukrainian soldiers, troops who are
now using them to arguably… fight today's number one threat to the Western world on
their behalf. All we have to do is continue to turn out our pockets when they come knocking.
But have I missed something here, I in no way claim to be an expert on IFV’s. Let me know
below if you believe whether or not handing over our vehicles to Ukraine is the right thing for
Canada to do. Thanks for watching, here are some other things we do here at Front line.