Army Piranha's fit for the scrap heap already?

Scruff

seems the army are having a lot of reliability issues already with the Piranha IIIs

http://www.herald.ie/national-news/wheels-are-falling-off-the-armys-euro120m-fleet-1436777.html

Dozens of armoured personnel carriers bought by the Irish army for €120m have developed serious faults.
The fleet of 80 vehicles has suffered a series of problems including failing speedometers, faulty transmissions, multiple cracks and wheels that fall off.
Documents released by the Defence Forces reveal concerns with the Mowag Piranha IIIs.
The papers show that €5m has been paid to acquire spare parts, despite its warranty.
They also reveal that monitoring equipment will be used to find out if the failures are being caused by vehicle faults or by the way soldiers are driving them in tough conditions.
Over two years, the vehicles have been recalled under warranty in order to fix driver instrument panels, steering wheel assemblies, suspension systems and "firing safety issues".
Modifications have been required to wheels, electronic control units and driver hatch locking mechanisms.
Mowag is a Swiss-based manufacturer supplying vehicles to armies all over the world.
The Defence Forces here expressed confidence in the fleet. They insisted the vehicles are reliable, capable and sophisticated, saying "without Mowags, Irish troops abroad would not operate as effectively or as safely as they do".
However, a November 2006 letter from Philip Cotter of the army's Combined Vehicle Base Workshops (CVBW) lists many problems.
Mr Cotter said "the majority of these problems occurred early in the vehicles' life and can be defined as design issues".
Mr Cotter outlines alternator repairs, ball joint replacements and an issue with the turret.
He said failures have occurred in other areas of the vehicles as well, including problems with the engines, auto-transmissions, and suspensions.
"Some units were replaced under warranty by Mowag," Mr Cotter added.
Sourcing parts took up to a year at times.
repairs
Mr Cotter says in another letter that 56 cracks were found on 26 Mowag hulls and that the company would repair them.
Problems with the instrument panel meant that drivers were receiving no indication of the speed they were travelling.
Another report by Captain J Fitzgerald in February 2006 states that the decision to replace ball joints in the entire Mowag fleet was taken "to ensure the safety of all personnel".
The issue with the ball joints came to attention of the CVBW after "an incident" in Kosovo in June 2005.
Other reports reveal a September 2006 incident where a control arm of a wheel was damaged from driving over a log.
- Cormac Murphy

muletide

top class as always by the herald - they took the article word for word from the Sunday Times.

Well done Cormac Murphy you lazy sod

echo hotel

am a mechanic have been overseas twice with mowags,
ill just say a very common frase used by us in liberia is
"we have a mowag down"