NR – 13.365 – December 20, 2013
Ottawa – The Family of Land Combat Vehicles (FLCV) program is delivering a suite of new combat capabilities with the goal of ensuring that the Canadian Army will continue to be strong, proud and ready to serve Canada and Canadians.
The program to date has included upgraded Light Armoured Vehicles, the Tactical Armoured Patrol Vehicle, Armoured Engineering Vehicles, and the Close Combat Vehicle known as the CCV.
The Family of Land Vehicles program has been a complex undertaking and has taken time. Throughout that time, we continuously assessed and validated the program's success in matching new equipments capabilities with the identified requirements of each project. It was this ongoing assessment that led us to consider a change in course.
The CCV platform was envisioned to bridge the protection, mobility, and firepower gap between a Light Armoured Vehicle and a Main Battle Tank. However, since the beginning of the Land Combat Vehicles program in 2009, we have seen significant capability that have addressed the protection concerns. The capabilities of the Upgraded Light Armoured Vehicle III are far superior to what was originally envisioned. Additionally, considerable investment in our Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance capabilities; significant advances in Counter-IED; and the Canadian Army's improvements in its tactics, techniques and procedures have all resulted in significant mitigation of tactical risk to our soldiers in deployed combat operations.
Based on this assessment, and the fundamental principle that the Canadian Armed Forces do not procure capabilities unless they are absolutely essential to the attainment of our mandate – the mandate outlined in the Canada First Defence Strategy – we recommended that the Government of Canada not proceed with the procurement process for the Close Combat Vehicle.
We have complete confidence that the Army remains fully capable of supporting any operation that the Government of Canada may assign to the Canadian Armed Forces.
Note to editors/ News directors:
Contact information:
Canadian Army Headquarters: Captain Denny Brown, Public Affairs Officer, 613-971-7118
