# Warthog replaces Viking



## John A Silkstone (Sep 30, 2009)

Vulnerable Viking replaced by Singapore's Warthog
A “lifesaving” piece of equipment has been urgently rolled out to replace the vulnerable Viking vehicle in which nine troops have been killed on operations in Afghanistan. 

The Warthog is replacing the Viking which is being withdrawn from service in Helmand 
The new Warthog tracked armoured vehicle was unveiled yesterday/today that commanders believe will bring a much tougher resistance to Taliban bombs. 

It is also uniquely the first armoured vehicle to be built for a Western army by an Asian company. ST Kinetics won the £150 million contract for 115 vehicles and has managed to produce the first Warthog within nine months, on time and ahead of schedule as part of an Urgent Operational Requirement. 

The nine dead included Lt Col Rupert Thorneloe, the commanding officer of the Welsh Guards, who this summer became the most senior Army officer to die on the frontline since the Falklands War. 

However the Viking proved that the twin-cabin push-pull method was highly mobile across the rough terrain and irrigation ditches of Helmand. 

STK also managed to win the contract from BAe Systems which has a Viking II variant. The Ministry of Defence opted for the Singapore company’s vehicle that is bigger and stronger than the 12 ton Viking at 19 tons. 

Major Jez Hermer, a former Royal Marine who commanded the first Viking force in Afghanistan and now a consultant for STK, said because of the Viking’s small size it was “pushed to limits and beyond” in terms of adding greater protection. 

The Warthog, which has been extensively tested in the Middle East by the Army, has been built with a specially reinforced hull but also has the capacity for adding on another four tons of armour or other protective equipment. 

“We wait to see what the Taliban will do in response but when things do happen and it is targeted we do have the capacity to do what we can to fend them off,” said Major Hermer “We have done the best we can to give the troops a fighting chance. Nothing can give you 100 per cent protection but this could prove a lifesaver.” 

The Warthog, which carries 12 soldiers and a heavy machine gun or grenade launch on the front mounting, will deploy on combat operations next spring. 

Six hundred have already been built for the Singapore Army and France could order a fleet within the next few weeks. 

“We may not be losing sons and daughters on a foreign field but nevertheless our feelings are at one with the British people,” said Chee Jhuen, president of STK. “If we fail to adequately deliver good support we hurt the man at the front. Thus our workers, engineers and managers are all bound to the British fighting man and his family.”


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