UK MoD Defends Its Snatch Land Rovers
Dec 02, 2008 17:30 UTC
“UK SAS Commander Quits, Citing Inadequate Equipment” placed the UK’s Snatch Land Rovers at the center of a series of controversies and senior resignations over the vehicle’s lack of protection. To date, 37 British troops have been killed in Land Rover Snatch vehicles while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan – 1/8 of all British casualties in those theaters.
DID’s article detailed Britain’s purchases of up-armored and all-terrain vehicles to supplement the Snatch, including a recent GBP 700 million order for various supply and specialty vehicles like the Buffalo and Wolfhound mine-protected vehicles, Navistar’s Husky TSV, and the Coyote TSV to accompany Supacat’s off-road Jackal wheeled vehicles. The MoD has also been forced to publicly address the Snatch furor on its blog, where it said that:
“An article in the Daily Telegraph claims that the deaths of hundreds of soldiers are linked to Snatch Land Rover vehicles in Afghanistan and Iraq. We take the protection of our troops very seriously, but operations are inherently risky. We take the steps we can to minimise the risks whilst remembering that we must achieve the tasks required… If there was a better vehicle, a smaller vehicle, out there that we could get our hands on quickly, or could have got our hands on quickly, we would do so or would have done so. We have been going round the international market trying to see if there is another smaller vehicle – it doesn’t exist. We are spending over [GBP] 30million to upgrade all our Snatch vehicles on operations to Snatch Vixen, which provides the same level of manoeuvrability with increased protection. These modifications will give the Snatch Vixen the highest levels of protection for its size and weight class, compared to other vehicles out there on the market.”
Read “UK SAS Commander Quits, Citing Inadequate Equipment” for ongoing updates.
