George Wallace said:
Thank you for your first hand experience and comments about 202.
In the Mid '80s we sent tanks to 202 with new parts and track and got back 'junk'. One powerpack came back with only one inch of metal holding the engine to the transmission and daylight showing between the two, when the Maintainers pulled the pack for their acceptance inspection. Not to mention the rusty old track on the vehicle. It seemed that the tanks were coming back in worse condition than they left, with only a new paint job to prove they had gone in to 202. All respect for 202 and anything 202 was lost that day.
Rarely we agree GW, There is no accountability there. The contractors, do the bare minimum. The full time employees, bypass the 3 month probation due to passing it with their contract work.
Even when a vehicle goes from one unit (the LAnd unit, the deployable vehicles unit) to 202 and back the original Veh Techs and Comm Techs have to REDO the work of the 202 pers to ensure serviceability.
The testing is bogus, the QC and QA is a joke. Very little of the equipment is actually tested and made serviceable for how the CAF uses it.
ITs tested according to the manuals. The "Experts" in house dont go to the units, they have no clue how its used and abused by the units that actually use the kit.
Explain how these experts determine that a piece of kit is useable for domestic or international ops.
Saying that, the military members there, they do care about the kit they work on, many do understand that the possibility lives are on the line for the maintenance and repair of the kit are completed, mostly because they have deployed with that kit.
Here is a quick story-
I was placed in charge of a section, they were doing retrofits, and the gear inside needed to be tested, and oddly enough they had no set procedure. I brought in a standardized way of testing, ensured EVERY piece of kit, every wire was serviceable and it created accountability. They realised it was actual work, but not hard work, you could have a vehicle done a day, which was faster then how they were doing it to begin with. (they would take a week per vehicle, or piss around waiting on "parts" from another section in house to stretch it out).
Two days later I was removed from the position and put into a corner. The civilian employees bitched to the union and it went up.
202 works close with Rheinmetall, as a matter of fact they just gave a bunch of bays to them I think to complete upgrades.
PArts of 202 can easily be outsourced, with a skeleton crew of SNCO keeping an eye on the EME side.
As for the sigs side, its a waste of effin money. BLEEDING MONEY. They do an odd upgrade once in a while on comms gear, (the Gun speakers), 95% of the "3rd" line repairs can actually be done in the unit. The upgrades can be pushed out via tech specs to units to do the upgrade themselves.
In essence, you have created a ball and chain on the LCMMs legs, they cant do their job properly. They get fed BS from the workers at 202, to the point that if your a military member, and your civilian CoC finds out about you talking to LCMMs you get in shit.
I have brought this up to respective personnel, I have done a thorough AAR, and review of procedure for it.
I dont think 202 needs to be axed completely, just a major cleanup. (also the reasoning for it being on the Island now is Mute, why is it still their on Expensive land?)