A Bit of Grizzley History
"12.86 General purpose armoured vehicle. In late 1973, the Department initiated a project to acquire a general-purpose armoured vehicle. A Swiss six-wheel design was selected, and a contract was awarded to a Canadian manufacturer to build 491 of the vehicles under licence. Three variants are the Cougar tank trainer, the Grizzly personnel carrier and the Husky recovery vehicle. The vehicles were to be manufactured at a cost not to exceed $150 million in 1975-76 dollars. The first units were delivered in 1978, and delivery was completed in September 1982.
12.87 The need for service could be related to departmental roles, objectives and tasks and the type and level of service desired was clearly described.
12.88 The analysis of alternatives and the ultimate selection of the Swiss design were found to be generally consistent with specified needs. However, by choosing a wheeled vehicle, DND accepted limited cross-country mobility under some conditions, notably thick mud, in order to obtain lower capital and operating costs than tracked vehicles require. Due to its limited cross-country mobility, the vehicle does not meet needs for reconnaissance and tactical training missions for all-arms operations in Europe and cannot serve effectively as a tank trainer. In its main functions of fire support and armoured transport for infantry, the performance of this vehicle is considered by the Department to be good.
12.89 The number of vehicles requested, originally 715, was determined according to standard brigade group requirements. An initial procurement of 491 vehicles was planned within the $150 million funding ceiling, but in December 1975, DND found that costs had escalated by about 30 per cent. A request for additional funding for the 491 vehicles was not approved, but in November 1976, Treasury Board authorized the procurement of 350 vehicles plus support material. In 1978, an amendment was authorized raising the quantity to 491, afforded mostly by using a portion of the contingency allowance and buying spares with a rebate of Federal Sales Tax.
12.90 The Husky recovery vehicle suffers from the same limitations as the rest of the vehicles in bad terrain conditions. Also, it cannot lift and tow another armored vehicle, although its purpose was to recover them. In manoeuvres at CFB Valcartier in 1982, 74 per cent of recovery calls for the vehicles could not be taken by the Husky. The armoured units therefore routinely used different recovery equipment for retrieval. Winch modifications have improved Husky's recovery performance, and mobility improvements continue to be sought for this vehicle fleet.
12.91 We have concerns about DND's reporting of operational readiness for these armoured vehicles. We examined, in the presence of officers responsible for them, 22 of a total of 146 vehicles at CFB Valcartier and CFB Gagetown. Although 100 per cent of the sample was reported by the Department as operational on that day, when we tested critical components such as gun turrets, power train and waterproofing, we found only 41 per cent of the vehicles to be without faults. The faults noted were: battery failure (23 per cent), turret not revolving (46 per cent), and swimming deficiencies (30 per cent).
12.92 Controls over maintenance labour costs were inadequate, and performance standards did not exist for comparison with actual maintenance hours requird. http://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/domino/reports.nsf/html/8412ce.html#0.2.L39QK2.8NXXYH.Y4PT1F.EN