The nature of conflicts in Afghanistan is strongly influencing equipment procurement plans, in both the types of vehicles and in the procurement process. There is increased emphasis on vehicle survivability, counter-insurgency capability and mobility for urban, semi-urban, rural and mountainous environments, rather than for large scale, high intensity operational capability. Many types of protected vehicles are being acquired which do the job, but the resulting fleet incoherence is stacking up slow-burn issues in areas such as supportabil-ity, obsolescence management and training. A further issue for future conflicts is that procurement of digitised high-end combat Armoured Fighting Vehicles (AFV) suitable for future "conventional" warfare is sometimes being put on the backburner. There are signs that the UK, for one, has recognised this developing issue with its fast-tracking of the Future Rapid Effect System (FRES) SV and WARRIOR upgrade programmes.
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