A £250 million transformation of the Army over the next decade will mean adding five medium-lift helicopters, 80 armoured troop carriers, and a similar number of armoured Humvee-type vehicles. While re-equipping and reorganising the Army to meet its new European defence commitments, the State is also expected to buy a new government jet, to be operated by the Air Corps, and another new ship for the Naval Service.
The re-equipment programme is the largest in the Army's history and is accompanied by construction at the Curragh, where garages for the new equipment are to be built. The Curragh is also being redeveloped to house troops from Naas, Kildare and Clancy Barracks in Dublin, which are being closed.
The capital expenditure on defence has largely been financed by savings from voluntary military redundancies. The Defence Forces has been reduced from 13,500 personnel to just over 10,000.
In an unpublicised ceremony last week, the Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, and the Chief-of-Staff, Lieut Gen Colm Mangan, received the keys to the first of the Mowag armoured personnel carriers (APCs) - each of which costs more than £1 million - from the Swiss manufacturer.
The first six Piranha APCs will arrive here in June and a further 34 over the coming year. The 30th Infantry Battalion in the Curragh is preparing to begin training with the vehicles.
The fleet of armoured vehicles will be necessary for the State to meet its commitment of having a "light arms" infantry battalion ready for service in the European Rapid Reaction Force (ERRF) by 2003. The Irish battalion is expected to number around 850 troops and it will probably be posted abroad permanently, possibly in the Balkans.
The overall ERRF will have at least 60,000 troops.
The key vehicles are the armour-plated Piranha troop carriers - which will protect soldiers from light arms fire and shrapnel. Most peacekeeping forces serving in the Balkans have armoured transport.
Decades of under-funding on capital expenditure in the Army have meant that virtually no modern armoured transport has been bought until now.
Initially only 40 new APCs were envisaged, while the Government is now expected to use an option clause in its contract for 40 APCs to buy another 40 this year.
The Irish Times has also learned that the Department of Defence is to tender for at least 80 "light tactical infantry vehicles". These are smaller, more adaptable vehicles used for a variety of "support" purposes.
General Motors Defence Operations, the manufacturer of the Piranha APCs, also makes a tactical support vehicle known as the High-Mobility-Multipurpose-Wheeled-Vehicle (HMMWV), called the Eagle.
It is based on the "Humvee" vehicle used by the US army. GM acquired the original Piranha manufacturer, Mowag of Switzerland, in 1999.
The Piranha is perhaps the most successful APC being manufactured. Last November the US army announced it was buying 2,131 of them, a $4 billion contract.
The Piranha has also been the APC selected by the armies of Canada, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland and New Zealand. The version selected by the Defence Forces is the Piranha III H8x8.
The Defence Force's version is armed with 12.7mm and 7.62mm machineguns mounted in a turret. The APCs are designed to carry a "dismountable unit" of nine soldiers with equipment.
The APCs and light tactical vehicles will be a major addition to the Army's capability. At present the Army has only two APCs and a small number of French lightly armed scout vehicles which were bought after the second World War.