In what has shaped up to be a very costly mistake, to the tune of £26 million ($33 million), to be specific, the Belgian Army spent good money on tank upgrades meant to improve the survivability of its fleet of 44 Pandur armored vehicles.
But in doing so, the tank’s interior ended up drastically reduced to the point that only soldiers who are less than 5 feet and 7 inches in height can fit in the driver’s seat.
What makes the mistake, even more, embarrassing is that Belgians are considered one of the tallest people in the world with the average male measuring 5 feet and 10 inches in height. Because of that, most of the soldiers in the Belgian military are unable to drive the refurbished vehicles.
The issue stems from the second raised floor that was installed as additional protection against roadside bombs. In addition, an air conditioning system that was added for use in hot countries further compounded the limited space problem.
A Belgian politician said the funds that were allocated for the project had been “thrown out of the windows” with Green MEP Wouter De Vriendt describing the whole thing as a “fiasco.”
De Vriendt said in a tweet: “The minister speaks about a ‘delay’ in the upgrade of the Pandur. Delay is a nice word for the fiasco. In the internal defense documents, the conclusion is hard: the vehicles cannot be used. Let us name the problems and not hide them away.”
In response to the mounting criticism, the military insisted that “in this type of vehicle, you’ve always had height restrictions.” The defense ministry reportedly said that only £1.45 million ($1.88 million) had actually been spent on the upgrades, at least so far.
Admiral Yves Dupont, head of the systems division, told broadcaster RTBF: “It is not the old vehicle which enters at the beginning of the chain and which leaves completely finished at the end, what we have are intermediate stages, and clearly after the first stage, the vehicle is not directly usable.
“To say that this vehicle is the vehicle that we are going to put into operation, it doesn’t make sense. It won’t be ready until it has undergone all of the changes.”
Replaced!