Page 19 - Australian Defence Magazine July-August 2022

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DEFENCE BUSINESS ADM CONGRESS 2022 19
The IFVs would equip a significant component of Army’s combat forces, including infantry, combat engineers, artil- lery fire teams, medics, mechanics, trades-people, logisti- cians and headquarters elements, BRIG Langford said.
“A calculation based on 450 IFVs, each with a capacity to transport three crew and six passengers, means that 3,050 soldiers are afforded the advantages of moving and fighting under armour, greatly improving their chances of success in combat,” he stated.
“As a first-world nation, the acquisition of both tanks and IFVs reflect on a nation that understands it must conduct these inherently dangerous roles but that it also places high value on protecting the lives of the soldiers that it asks so much from in high threat environments.”
Referring to the conflict in Ukraine and earlier fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia, BRIG Langford rejected suggestions that modern armoured vehicles were at such risk of defeat by lightly armed foes with drones and modern guided weapons that they should be abandoned.
“The short answer is no,” he said. “Drones and anti-ar- mour systems are contributing to this war, but so are the in- fantry, armour and artillery as well as the naval, air, space and informational power of both sides.
“Equally, it is hardly surprising that late-model drones and the best anti-armour weapons the Western world manufac- tures, designed with sophisticated target-acquisition sensors,
guidance systems and advanced warheads, are defeating tanks and IFVs developed four decades ago, if not earlier.” The majority of Russian vehicles in Ukraine lacked equipment that enabled modern armour to survive such as soft and hard-kill active protection systems (APS) and the benefits of integrated command, control and communica- tions systems, which were vital for mobile forces to operate under an effective air-defence umbrella, BRIG Langford
further commented.
“There has not been a single APS-active armoured vehicle
destroyed in Ukraine and Russian tactics there were con- ceived around numbers with less regard to survival,” he noted. “Moreover, vehicle tactics typically employed by Russian forces are conceived around ‘mass’ as a capability in itself with less regard to APS and the survival of a single or low
number of IFVs.
“Additionally, Russian vehicles are so obviously poorly
sustained, maintained and operated it is little wonder that they are presenting so many targets to Ukrainian forces who are being well-equipped by the collective capacity of NATO and others to destroy these antiquated Soviet-era capabilities.” ■
ABOVE: Around 460 delegates heard from a wide range of subject matter experts at ADM’s 2022 Congress
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