October 31, 2003

The Boston Globe has the obituary of classic hard science fiction author Harry Clement Stubbs who wrote under the pen name Hal Clement died on Wednesday at age 81. He was best known for his 1953 novel Mission of Gravity. I last saw him at this year’s World Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention Torcon 3 in Toronto, Ontario over the Labour Day weekend where he took part in several panels. 10:40:45 PM

Since newspaper reports indicate the Canadian Department of Defense is paying $600 million Cdn. for 66 Stryker Mobile Gun System vehicle I was surpised by the high price of over $9 million Cdn per vehicle. Research on the web shows that the US military is paying $48 million US for their first 10 copies. Possibly the difference of over $3 million per vehicle is for spare parts and support equipment. On his blog Bruce Rolston examines how the Canadian army may use this vehicles – most likely as part of an combined arms operations rather than grouping the lightly armoured vehicles together as an armoured mass. In fact already the US military is working on a add-on kit to increase its ability to withstand attacks from the commonly encountered RPG-7 anti-tank rocket ropelled grenades used by irregulars and armies throughout the world.  Bruce Rolston also notes that with the introduction of the wheeled LAVIII which has the same basis chassis as the Stryker the Canadian Army is selling a number of M-113A2 Armoured Personnel Carriers. Along with assorted missiles, helicopters, jets, artillery and machine guns – even a small military has a lot of equipment. 10:25:48 PM