A lot of military operations occur off the beaten path. You know, places like the desert or the forest, not the highway. That's why the brilliant Canadian military wants its soldiers to learn how to drive rally cars.
The idea is that the military will rent a training facility with a short rally circuit that has all the elements they're looking for, like gravel, dirt, and paved sections, blind corners, and crests. They'll do it in all-wheel drive and front-wheel drive cars to learn about high speed obstacle avoidance, something key when driving quickly off-road.
They have a $100,000 budget for two years, and will need instructors certified by Rally America or the Canadian Association of Rally Sport.
Rally training is not a new thing to the military in Canada or abroad (we've also used it here) but damn is it a smart way to keep your tanks out of ditches as well as prevent rollovers in other, smaller, military vehicles.
Here's what I'm wondering: Do officers read pacenotes out to each other while driving in a Humvee? "Left 60 over crest into terrorist." Could that please be a thing?
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