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Army gets £35m vehicles to protect patrols from suicide bombers
By Sean Rayment.
(Filed: 30/04/2006)

The Army is set to buy 80 armoured vehicles at a cost of £35 million for use in Afghanistan to try to counter the threat posed by suicide bombers.

The armoured Pinzgauer, which was originally designed for the Austrian army, has been adapted for use in "high-risk" environments, and will protect troops from automatic fire, landmines and fragmentation bombs.



Defence chiefs are currently in negotiations with Automotive Technik, a British company, which holds the rights to build Pinzgauers in Britain. They are preparing to sign a contract by this summer. Although British troops have already started arriving in Afghanistan to take part in Operation Herrick, the name for the British military mission, the vehicles are unlikely to be available before the summer of 2007.

Funding for the Pinzgauers has been agreed by Lord Drayson, the Minister for Defence Procurement, under the MoD's "urgent operational requirement" scheme because the Army did not have any vehicles that could match either their mobility, or the protection they afforded troops travelling inside.

Their purchase underlines the threat British troops are likely to face from insurgents in Afghanistan.

It also reinforces claims that the Army could be involved in Afghanistan's reconstruction for up to a decade.

Details of the new armoured vehicles emerged as the MoD confirmed that British troops will take part in pre-emptive strikes against insurgents.

The Sunday Telegraph has learnt that senior officers believe the greatest threat to British troops will come from suicide bombers and insurgents armed with the same improvised explosive devices that have been used against lightly-armoured vehicles in Iraq.

Using a "shaped charge", which is detonated by a passive infrared device, insurgents have killed 13 British soldiers since May last year. The armoured Pinzgauer, which will not be used in Iraq, can carry 14 men in full kit, has a six-wheel drive capability and can operate continuously in water up to 2ft deep. It can tackle 45-degree slopes and has a top speed of around 50mph.

The vehicles are capable of operating in desert and arctic conditions.

A non-armoured version is already in use by the Royal Marines. It proved a success with British troops in Iraq because of its reliability, although it gave no protection against small arms fire or insurgent bomb attacks.