The Medium Support Vehicle System (MSVS) is a designation for two types of medium capacity
logistics
Logistics is generally the detailed organization and implementation of a complex operation. In a general business sense, logistics manages the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of consumption to meet the requirements of ...
trucks
A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construction ...
used by the
Canadian Army
The Canadian Army (french: Armée canadienne) is the command responsible for the operational readiness of the conventional ground forces of the Canadian Armed Forces. It maintains regular forces units at bases across Canada, and is also respo ...
: the ''Standard Military Pattern (SMP)'' for use by the regular forces and for overseas deployments, and the ''Militarized
Commercial Off-The-Shelf
Commercial off-the-shelf or commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS) products are packaged or canned (ready-made) hardware or software, which are adapted aftermarket to the needs of the purchasing organization, rather than the commissioning of ...
(MilCOTS)'' trucks for use by the
Army Reserve
A military reserve force is a military organization whose members have military and civilian occupations. They are not normally kept under arms, and their main role is to be available when their military requires additional manpower. Reserve ...
and for domestic purposes. The two MSVS designs were procured to replace the army's fleet of "
Medium Logistics Vehicle, Wheeled" (MLVW) trucks built by
Bombardier Inc.
Bombardier Inc. () is a Canadian business jet manufacturer. It was also formerly a manufacturer of commercial jets, public transport vehicles, trains, and recreational vehicles, with the last being spun-off as Bombardier Recreational Pro ...
in 1982-83.
Procurement History
The Canadian Army's MLVW trucks were delivered beginning in 1982, and had an anticipated 15-year lifespan.
However, by the turn of the century the MLVW fleet still had not been replaced. The
Department of National Defence Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to:
Current departments of defence
* Department of Defence (Australia)
* Department of National Defence (Canada)
* Department of Defence (Ireland)
* Department of National Defense (Philipp ...
(DND) and
Canadian Armed Forces
}
The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF; french: Forces armées canadiennes, ''FAC'') are the unified military forces of Canada, including sea, land, and air elements referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army, and Royal Canadian Air Force.
...
(CAF) officially identified a replacement project in October 2000, but approval to proceed with procurement did not come until 2003, when then-
defence minister
A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in som ...
John McCallum
John McCallum (born 9 April 1950) is a Canadian politician, economist, diplomat and former university professor. A former Liberal Member of Parliament ( MP), McCallum was the Canadian Ambassador to China from 2017 to 2019. He was asked for h ...
approved a DND/CAF plan to
sole source Multisourcing is the concept of working with multiple suppliers who are also competitors. Large-scale buyers, such as the U.S. federal government, may want to feel assured that there is more than one supplier for an item.
It has been described as t ...
1,500 trucks from the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
, who were in the midst of their own procurement program for approximately 83,000 units. The plan to pursue the option from the US Army was expected to save approximately $300 million (
CAD
Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve co ...
) versus procuring an entirely new truck of their own, but federal government bureaucrats and domestic industry strongly opposed the plan and government support fell through.
By January 2004 the DND warned that the MLVWs were in such poor condition that they could catastrophically fail without warning. The trucks' poor condition resulted in annual operating costs of $49,500 per truck per 10 000 km, including $38,900 for spare parts alone. Extrapolated over the following ten years it was expected that keeping the MLVWs for another decade would cost over $1 billion.
The
Liberal government Liberal government may refer to:
Australia
In Australian politics, a Liberal government may refer to the following governments administered by the Liberal Party of Australia:
* Menzies Government (1949–66), several Australian ministries under S ...
under
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
Paul Martin
Paul Edgar Philippe Martin (born August 28, 1938), also known as Paul Martin Jr., is a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 21st prime minister of Canada and the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada from 2003 to 2006.
The son o ...
pledged $2.5 billion in their 2005 defence budget toward a new generation of medium-sized logistics trucks, but no definitive spending announcement had been made by the
2006 Canadian federal election.
After the
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
government of
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ...
was elected their first budget included the MSVS program, which would see $1.1 billion spent on five phases of procurement:
# 1,300 MilCOTS trucks for use by the Reserves in domestic operations,
# 995 ISO container-based mobile workspaces, or "shelters" (including medical, dental, workshop, field kitchen, command post),
# "kitting" of the shelters,
# 1,587 SMP trucks for use by the Regular Army, and
# infrastructure to support the program
MilCOTS
The contract for MSVS MilCOTS trucks was awarded to
Navistar Defense
Navistar, Inc is an American holding company created in 1986 as the successor to International Harvester. Navistar operates as the owner of International-branded trucks and diesel engines. The company also produces buses under the IC Bus br ...
in January 2009. They provided 1,300
Navistar 7400
Navistar, Inc is an American holding company created in 1986 as the successor to International Harvester. Navistar operates as the owner of International-branded trucks and diesel engines. The company also produces buses under the IC Bus br ...
trucks based on the civilian
International WorkStar, in six different configurations:
* 895 Troop Carrying Vehicle (TCV)
* 128 Cargo trucks with tarp & cage
* 32 Cargo trucks with a 16 ft long open deck and crane
* 100 Flatbed trucks
* 94 Artillery trucks with a nine-person cab
* 51 Auger trucks with a nine-person cab
SMP
The MSVS SMP contract was awarded on June 11, 2015
to
Mack Defense, who provided trucks based on the
Renault Kerax
The Renault Kerax is a medium- and heavy-duty truck manufactured by Renault Trucks, aimed at the construction industry, and is available as a rigid body or tractor configuration. It was launched in 1997, and underwent a full upgrade in 2006. Produc ...
(Mack is a subsidiary of the
Volvo Group
The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributio ...
, which also owns
Renault Trucks
Renault Trucks is a French commercial truck manufacturer with corporate headquarters at Saint-Priest near Lyon. Originally part of Renault, it has been a subsidiary of the Volvo Group since 2001.
From its beginnings in 1978 to 2002, the comp ...
). They feature four driven axles with a two-speed
ZF VG2000-300
transfer case
A transfer case is a part of the drivetrain of four-wheel-drive, all-wheel-drive, and other multiple powered axle vehicles. The transfer case transfers power from the transmission to the front and rear axles by means of drive shafts. It also syn ...
for
eight-wheel drive
Eight-wheel drive, often notated as 8WD or 8×8, is a drivetrain configuration that allows all eight wheels of an eight-wheeled vehicle to be drive wheels (that is, to receive power from the engine) simultaneously. Unlike four-wheel drive drivetr ...
.
The MSVS SMP has both armored and unarmored cab variants and five main configurations:
* 603 Cargo
* 50 Material Handling Crane (MHC)
* 37 Gun Tractor (GT)
* 742 Load Handling System (LHS)
* 155 Mobile Repair Team (MRT)
References
{{reflist
Canadian Army