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Background
— Badger Armoured Engineering Vehicle (for Leopard) |
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“... the solid qualities of that admirable animal ...”
Along with the Taurus armoured
recovery vehicle, Kandahar-bound CF Leopard tanks were
matched with a second specialty vehicle - the Badger AEV. Closely related to the Taurus,
Badgers have built- up armoured casements for their crews, extensible hydraulic arms, and ’dozer blades
mounted on the front of the hull. However, a Badger’s telescoping arm has a large excavating
bucket and that dozer blade is for serious earth works.
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Like the Taurus, the Badgers are clad with bolt-on medium MEXAS
up-armouring kits [1] and a good thing too – the Badger is intended to go in harm’s way. Once in
Afghanistan, the Badgers set out for Ma’sum Ghar in Panjwaii District (70 km or so from Kandahar). Like
their namesakes, the Badgers dug into the hillsides, preparing revetments converting the site into a Forward
Operating Base suitable for a squadron of soon-to-arrive Leopard C2 tanks.[2]
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MaK Badger Armoured
Engineering Vehicle – Specifications
| Crew: |
2-4 driver, commander, (opt. radio op, gunner) |
| Armament: |
2 x 7.62mm C6 , 8 x 76mm grenade launchers [3] |
| Size: |
L x 7.57m (hull), W x 3.25m, H x 2.7m (overall) |
| Weight: |
39,800 kg (empty), 41,750 kg (combat weight) |
| Powerplant: |
610 kW multi-fuel MTU MB838 V10, ZF trans. |
| Speed/Range: |
Max: 65km/h / Operating Range: 850km (road) |
| Capabilities: |
Dozing 270 m3/h, Excavating 140 m3/h |
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Tracked vehicles can also deliver more of that power to traction making dozing more effective. [4] So,
the nine CF Badgers are proving not just useful (a quarter century on) but vitally important. For
strategic and practical reasons, bases like FOB Ma’sum Ghar must be completed quickly, and with no
certainty of being free from hostile fire. It is hard to envision vehicles other than Badgers in this
role.[5]
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[1] The bolt-on armour kits date back to the 1990s. New for the Afghan deployment are thick armour slabs on either
side of the casement.
[2] B Squadron, Lord Strathcona’s Horse (Royal Canadians) moved from Kandahar to FOB Ma’sum Ghar on 03
December 2006, local time.
[3] The ball-mounted hull C6 machinegun position is often left unarmed. The ubiquitous 76mm Wegmann launchers
fire smoke grenades.
[4] The ’dozer blade is the same as that used by Leopards. Good as the Badger is, dedicated
bulldozers are the most effective at dozing.
[5] Since it became apparent that plans to procure a wheeled MGS were coming off the rails, there has been much discussion of
Leopard replacments but surprisingly little about replacing Leopard-based specialty vehicles:
Badger AEV, Taurus ARV, and Beaver bridgelayer.
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DND plans had been towards moving to wheeled engineering vehicles – LAV Eng and MPEV Multi-Purpose
Engineering Vehicle (a front-end loader/bucket
excavator). But, in southern Afghanistan, speed of oper- ation increases survivability but so does
the protection of thick armour. The surplus power of the Badger helps in both speed and in
dozing.