German Army vehicles in Australia

[buglerbilly]

Ares

A Defense Technology Blog

Boxers and Wiesels Down Under

Posted by Nicholas Fiorenza at 3/4/2010 1:30 PM CST

Some 100 German soldiers have been in Australia since the beginning of February to test the performance of their equipment in desert and tropical conditions. They are conducting operational testing of the Boxer armored transport vehicle, command post versions of the Wiesel 2 and BV206S, and the Mikado mini unmanned aerial vehicle for the army armaments section of the office of the German army, supported by German industry.


German army photo of Wiesel 2 by Stefan Heydt

The testing is being conducted in two phases in Australia: hot and dry at the Woomera testing ground in southern Australia and hot and humid at the Townsville training area in the northeast of the country. At a later stage, testing in a cold (Arctic) climate will take place in northern Norway.

The German army has conducted operational testing of its equipment in northern Norway and French Guyana in the past, but this is the first time it has done so Down Under. German troops were last in Australia in 1999 when they participated in the International Force for East Timor (INTERFET) and the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET).

[danh]

This story got a run on the Age last week. Man there were some bloody stupid comments.

[Raven22]

I had a first look at ze German vehicles today. First opinion - the Boxer is bloody massive. It blotted out the sun. Makes an ASLAV Type II look like a matchbox car. Mind you, for 9 million Euros it had want to big.

I was very proud of myself too - a couple of hours with the Germans and I didn't mention the war once...

[buglerbilly]

I had a first look at ze German vehicles today. First opinion - the Boxer is bloody massive. It blotted out the sun. Makes an ASLAV Type II look like a matchbox car. Mind you, for 9 million Euros it had want to big.

I was very proud of myself too - a couple of hours with the Germans and I didn't mention the war once...

Photo's?

[Raven22]

It wasn't the done thing to take photos today. I should get some later on though. I'll need to get a wide angle lens though.

[McDethWivFries]

I'll need to get a wide angle lens though.

didn't think the boxer was THAT big (o;

[Wolftrap]

I was very proud of myself too - a couple of hours with the Germans and I didn't mention the war once...

I'm sure they appreciated the chats more than references to a time before they were born themselves. ;)
Hope you can snatch up a ride in the Boxer and would love to see some pictures as well!

Cheers!

[Raven22]

In between cyclone prepping my unit today I was able to attend the capability demo for the Boxer and all the other kit. On reflection, the Boxer isn't as large as I mentioned earlier, but it is still bloody big. Its generally a well though out vehicle, with a pretty good interior. It is bloody loud though - static it sounded like an idling tank, but on the move it sounds like a C-130. Lots of power in the donk but. The interior only seats 7 men, but you could easily rip out the ammo rack on the right hand side and put in another seat. The way the Germans work it is the vehicle commander dismounts with the section leaving the gunner and driver in the vehicle, which gives the 8 man dismounted section. With just an RWS on top, the gunner is a bit superfluous - the commander should be able to do both. If you stuck an unmanned turret on top it would be a useful position though. In addition to the commander's and drivers hatches, there are four other hatches on top, although the smoke dischargers are at the back of the vehicle, which is bloody dumb if you ask me - any shooters are likely to get a grenade to the back of the head.

The interior stowage is well thought out with a place for absolutely everything - every weapon has its own rack, there are nets to hold helmets to the roof, stowage spots for packs etc. The idea is to have absolutely no external stowage, but simply use the 14 cubic metres of internal space to hold everything. Personally I think that is naive, and soldiers are going to be hanging shit on the outside but so be it. There's not much legroom though - less than a bushmaster, which is strange for such a wide vehicle.

The also had a Wiesel and BV206 there, which are both tiny to the point of being comical. The Wiesel can motor along though, they had one up to 87 kmph which isn't bad for a tracked vehicle. The BV is a pretty good piece of kit, although they did roll one up at high range.

The Germans also had all their small arms there to play with. The G-36 is pretty cool, although the German soldiers (who had recently returned from Afghan) mentioned they were good at the range but shit in combat. Fair enough. The MG-4 is pretty much identical to the Minimi except that it took me 5 minutes to work out how to raise the feed cover, and its got feed pawls on the feed tray to hold the rounds on, which is something our Minimis need. It had a good bipod though, better than the Minimi. The MP7 was my favourite though. It has the worlds tiniest rounds but it is very compact yet with extended stock and foregrip it is pretty easy to handle and use. The tankers were particularly interested as they want something similar for the Abrams crews.

As promised, I got a few photos of the kit, although they were taken after the Germans had packed up.


Boxer next to a PMV


Bolt in 'MRIK' that changes the specialisation of the vehicle. Pretty good setup I think.


Driver's hole


Commander's hole


Gunner's hole


Left side


Right side


Wiesel (I think I made one of these out of Mecanno when I was a kid)


Front of the BV


Rear of the BV

[buglerbilly]

Great shots mate...............