Gilligan said:
The reserves are getting the Milcot, which is a "militarized" chevy silverado. Personally, I find it to be a giant hunk of crap....we can't take it off hardpack, which is useless to us out west. I've heard many good things about the G-wagon that the regs have, based on use of the milcot, I would rather have the G-wagon, although I'm not quite sure I'm altogether ready to give up the Lltis. It is far more vesitile than a full sized pickup, as it is it's a civy truck with a rifle rack in the middle. We aren't afraid to beat the Lltis up a little, as isn't that the purpose of any vehicle in the military?
I qualified on the milcot very recently, and I must say, it's a pleasure to drive... and though it's got many drawbacks... and I've withdrawn my earlier distaste for the vehicle... I still think it's ridiculous as a replacement for the iltis, and it would be ridiculous as a replacement for LSVW as well, but it's a reaonsably good vehicle for use in a utility role, primarily in support of domestic ops... if we ever get the winches for them, it'll be better still... snorkel kits would be nice too... but that would be nice for all vehicles...
On the subject of beating it up, according to our transport rep, as the body panels are substantially thicker then a normal truck, you can walk on them... as soon as I have a reasonable excuse to walk on one (I can't justify simply dancing on the hood in case he's wrong), I plan to walk on every inch of it just to find out. Beyond that, the paint is just cosmetic... if somone tells you you're not allowed to scratch it, well, that's a problem between you and them, not me.
I'm really not a fan of not being allowed to do maintence on it, and the fact that our mechanics aren't allowed to do maintence on them bothers me even more... for the purposes of exercises, fine, whatever, save the mechanics to work on the other vehicles, but if you're supporting domestic ops, you need to be able to fix your trucks...
We obviously still need a real replacement for the iltis, and the milcot isn't it, that being said, it does give us a much more durable (And unfortunately, much more expensive) vehicle to fill a niche usually filled by rental vehicles.
Now that I'm done being frightened by the iltis, I'm going to move on to being terrified that the rumor that they're replacing the MLVW with a cube van painted green...