Canberra gets a beast! Behold the Lenco Engineering Armoured Rescue Vehicle.

Wow, so next time the SWAT team come around our flats will I see this MACHINE???

shadow boxer said :

Is it just me or are our security agencies seriously overfunded and just looking for excuses to spend capital.

Overfunded? You must to be joking. Maybe under the Howard government. These days it’s more responsibilty using less money.

GottaLoveCanberra said :

… if they’re going after someone with the capability to disable this vehicle the police won’t be using this vehicle, they’ll get something bigger!

Chuck Norris?

GottaLoveCanberra said :

LSWCHP said :

The manufacturers website says the crew compartment is proof against 7.62 AP and .50 BMG, but what about the tyres?

It looks to me like a bloke with a rifle could disable it before it could get near enough to use that nifty gas insertion probe thingy.

Probably using run-flats at which point if they’re going after someone with the capability to disable this vehicle the police won’t be using this vehicle, they’ll get something bigger!

Anyway, if it saves the life of just one copper in a siege situation then I think it’s 400k well spent.

Definitely +1 on that. I hope it’s never used in anger.

Is it a right hand drive version?

Keijidosha said :

Should be useful for the zombie apocolypse.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS8KXHBCimo

Thas was my first thought as well.

LSWCHP said :

The manufacturers website says the crew compartment is proof against 7.62 AP and .50 BMG, but what about the tyres?

It looks to me like a bloke with a rifle could disable it before it could get near enough to use that nifty gas insertion probe thingy.

Probably using run-flats at which point if they’re going after someone with the capability to disable this vehicle the police won’t be using this vehicle, they’ll get something bigger!

Anyway, if it saves the life of just one copper in a siege situation then I think it’s 400k well spent.

The manufacturers website says the crew compartment is proof against 7.62 AP and .50 BMG, but what about the tyres?

It looks to me like a bloke with a rifle could disable it before it could get near enough to use that nifty gas insertion probe thingy.

Shoulda canned it and given 1.4 to the raiders.

I bet this will have all those watch-how-I-can-negotiate-a-roundabout-without-turning-the-steering-wheel-even-a-single-degree heroes green with envy.

I don’t know what we ever did without it. Now I’ll feel safe from the terrists and be able to sleep at night.

And that music – so inspiring. It provides an uplifting musical portrait of the fine, wise people who decided that this was the best way to spend $400k.

Should be useful for the zombie apocolypse. Although these guys built the same thing for less than 1% of the cost:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS8KXHBCimo

I reckon it’ll be USED quite a lot, but NEEDED never.

Meanwhile, if anyone wants to see actual police doing normal police stuff, try speeding on that new bit of road exiting qbn to the coast. The steepish bit. There is a plod there every day, either lurking near the old Kingsway entrance with a hairdryer, or doing laps, waiting. Usually in a dark blue bling-mobile.

They are catching a lot of people. it’s rather entertaining, wondering if the car or bike who just went past is speeding or not, to have that confirmed as the Plod-wagon lights up and goes after them.

Meanwhile ACT police have outsourced this sort of thing to fixed cameras and public servants in white vans while they prance around in military-style RVs.

gospeedygo said :

Send it for nightly patrols down Tuggers way perhaps?

for the drive through Maccas runs and picking up the 5’10” mobile phone thuggies in Monash

shadow boxer said :

They could load it up with the AFP Jet ski’s and park it down by the lake. On a given signal the doors could fly open and out come the jet skiers in full tuxedo’s before flying across the lake to stealthily join 007 at the ASIO garden party to open their new citadel.

lol
I will be interested to see how long before it is needed – and I mean really needed rather than just used.

Obviously no-one read the document above? It say’s the National Counter-Terrorism Committee agreed to purchase these vehicles for each jurisdiction in Australia.

Yes we live in the National Capital, if there is a terrorist act it very well could happen here.

You guy’s do realise that ACT Policing falls under the Federal Police as well? Just checking.

Very impressive, but one wonders why they didn’t just pick up some Bushmasters?

Got to be some cheap M113s around these days.

C’mon guys. It’s budget time, thats why they were bought. Now that they have appeared, I bet they will soon be mothballed and placed in an secure, inner city or airport location for potential strategic reserves in case of a civil uprising that may never happen.

They could load it up with the AFP Jet ski’s and park it down by the lake. On a given signal the doors could fly open and out come the jet skiers in full tuxedo’s before flying across the lake to stealthily join 007 at the ASIO garden party to open their new citadel.

Is it just me or are our security agencies seriously overfunded and just looking for excuses to spend capital.

I think a Bushmaster would be an inferior vehicle for this application.

Take a look at this video, which covers the Lenco the AFP have acquired, which is a Lenco Bearcat:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vm4bzV31k14

Send it for nightly patrols down Tuggers way perhaps?

EvanJames said :

Exemplifies what the ACT police think their role is. I expect to see the next protest outside the Chinese Embassy attended by this thing, blasting water at the startled Falung Gong characters.

Actually, more for this kind of situation: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article6246539.ece

JB raises a good point about not just buying a Bushmaster. Unfortunately the specs on these vehicles are protected by a client login on Lenco’s site so not sure of the weight. I’m thinking the Bushmasters would be too heavy for suburban use. I recall the Bushmaster deployed to QLD during the floods had severe restrictions on what roads they could use due to bridge weight restrictions along the way.

And before the neysayers start calling this a waste of money, we are the last jurisdiction in Australia to not have some sort of armoured police vehicle. This along with the 5 armoured AFP 4x4s not long ago seem a sensible precaution in a national capital.

Exemplifies what the ACT police think their role is. I expect to see the next protest outside the Chinese Embassy attended by this thing, blasting water at the startled Falung Gong characters.

That’ll be very useful for rounding up drunks in Civic.