The first six of the Army's new fleet of armoured personnel carriers arrived in Dublin Port last week and are undergoing initial tests at the Curragh. Forty Piranha III carriers are due to be delivered by the Swiss manufacturer, Mowag, between now and next January.
The total cost of the carriers is expected to be about £40 million (#50.8 million). The Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, has indicated he will consider buying a further 40 if necessary.
The carriers represent the largest single investment in armoured vehicles for the Defence Forces. Funding comes from savings made from 3,000 voluntary redundancies and early retirements, and from the sale of Defence properties.
The Army expects a new light infantry battalion to use the carriers. It
would serve with the European Rapid Reaction Force on peacekeeping missions, probably in the Balkans, and would replace the infantry battalion which has been in place with the UN Interim Force in the Lebanon for the past 23 years. The Unifil mission ends in November. The carriers will come into service with the 3rd Infantry Battalion at the Curragh. The Minister for Defence is expected to invite tenders from manufacturers later this summer, including Mowag, for the supply of at least 60 lightly armoured "tactical vehicles", support vehicles equivalent to the US army's "Humvees", which played a prominent role in the 1991 Gulf War.
The Mowag Piranha is one of the most successful carriers in the world. In April, General Motors and General Dynamics Land Systems, which manufacture the Piranha under licence from Mowag, won a $4 billion award to supply a fleet to the US army's brigade combat teams.
Soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Battalion have spent the past few months at Mowag's headquarters in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland, testing the first of the new fleet. The model which has been bought by the Defence Forces is mounted with a .5 calibre machine gun and provides protection against small to medium arms fire and small landmines.