AFV Society

Does the Mamba fit in this section?



Chris

Oh I do hope so

Ten points for each vehicle correctly identifed

Free 24V headlamp bulb to the first person who can name the country

Dave

I gather the Blackwater Security group got four of the batch from Withams

Lets see...

Acorn, Mamba, Panhard VBL, the little tracked thing is German and I can't remember the name. No idea about the other 2... Israeli? South African?

Chris

I make that 37.5 points....

So for anyone interested in the British Army Mambas I have recently discovered the following Parliamentary reply regarding their purchase use and disposal....

Ann Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence
(1) how many OMC/Alvis Mamba/RG-31 mine-protected vehicles were purchased for Army use; on what date they were purchased; what the total purchase price was; (a) by which formations, (b) for what purposes and (c) when the vehicles were used; and if he will make a statement; [80568]
(2) what modifications were made to the OMC/Alvis Mamba/RG-31 mine-protected vehicles in order to enhance mine protection and the TMRP-6 threat; how many vehicles were modified; what the total cost was of those modifications while on the Army inventory; and if he will make a statement; [80569]
(3) what (a) maintenance and (b) other difficulties were experienced by Army formations in their use of the OMC/Alvis Mamba/RG-31 mine-protected vehicles while on their charge; what steps were taken to resolve those difficulties; what outcomes resulted from those steps; and if he will make a statement; [80570]
(4) when and to whom the inventory of OMC/Alvis Mamba/RG-31 mine-protected vehicles was disposed of; how much was received; what the end destination of the vehicles was; and if he will make a statement; [80571]
(5) if he will assess (a) ease of maintenance and (b) reliability of the (i) OMC/Alvis Mamba and (ii) current version of the RG-31M. [80573]

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the reasons are for replacing the Mamba vehicle with the mine-protected vehicle; and what the estimated cost is. [81608]

Mr. Ingram: The Mamba mine-protected vehicle was based on an earlier version of the RG-31. In response to an operational requirement for a vehicle protected against blast and explosively formed projectile attack from below and small arms, fragmentation and some blast from the side 14 second-hand Mamba vehicles were bought in three batches through the Urgent Operational Requirements process between 1996-99. Six were bought in 1996 for the NATO implementation force mission in Bosnia; three were procured in 1999 for operations in Macedonia; and a further five were bought later in 1999 for operations in Kosovo. The approval cost of the first six was around £1.2 million and the second and third batches cost £1 million and
25 July 2006 : Column 1541W
£2.3 million respectively. They were used by specialist teams for explosive ordnance disposal tasks such as reconnaissance, rescue and recovery and route proving and were deployed in the Balkans until 2003.
The Mamba vehicle was delivered to the Ministry of Defence following modification of the base vehicle by the contractor, Alvis with the addition of appliqué belly armour to withstand attack by shaped-charge mines. This modification was included in the purchase cost. The extra weight of the appliqué armour was found to overload the Mambas and caused reliability and safety problems. The high level of maintenance required to keep the vehicles operational was exacerbated by a lack of commonality between the individual vehicles and poor availability of spares. In May 2001, due to road safety issues, their use was restricted to operational situations where there was a significant threat of minestrikes. Since the current version of the RG-31 is not in service with the UK armed forces we cannot comment on its ease of maintenance or reliability.
The MOD considered modifying and refurbishing the vehicles but replacement with a new vehicle was identified as the better option. As a result the vehicles were disposed of in 2004 for a total of £44,000. Nine were sold to Estonia, four to a US company and one to a company based in Singapore.

Hi
The little German tracked vehicle is called wiesel.
look hier
http://www.panzerbaer.de/types/bw_watr_ ... 30mm-a.htm
Achim

I am utterly gobsmacked to see how much more open the UK Government is becoming in responses to questions posed as shown by this and other replies in the forum, way to go UK!

44K i bet a certain company got more than that for each one in their ermmm " sale " ohhh thats right they never went in any sale did they !