The M113 light armoured cavalry vehicle, as operated in Vietnam by Australian forces, allowed greater operational flexibility. Fitted with a 76mm gun turret and mortar, it could provide immediate fire support response out to about 10k. But, the heavy weapon capability has been excluded in an ongoing (botched) enhancement program for 431 M113 vehicles, although some will be adapted for mortar carriage (120mm?). Too many negatives in employing cumbersome behemoth tanks.
BR71 I'm not sure if the Saladin turret FSV made it to Vietnam ... did it? Certainly the Scorpion turret MRV didn't - it didn't enter service until the late 1970s. Indirect fire from the mortar has a planning range of about 5000m (81mm), and the 76mm gave direct fire out to a couple of thousand metres.
The MRV 'beasts' had all been retired before the ASLAV was trialled. The 25mm on the ASLAV gives direct fire out to the same range as the 76mm, far more accurately.
Your description of Land 106 as being 'botched' ... well, I can't disagree. Half a billion beer tickets blown on vehicles that just won't be deployed. It would have cost more to buy a contemporary IFV to equip 1 BDE, but that will have to happen under Land 400 anyway, and the result would have been a useful asset.
Given the grief it has caused 2 Div RAAC Regiments, (who have had half a decade in the wilderness after 'donating' their buckets to be fed into the M113 upgrade program), and the resultant lack of a battlefield-employable car - - -
'Cumbersome behemoth tanks'? You mean the mobile, protected, network-enabled, sensor-equipped intimate direct fire support system? The 'negatives' to which you refer must be the political fall out. For this we can thank the Army for not explaining why we need tanks; and the ignorance of pollies and the self-appointed authorities on all things strategic. For some reason tanks push cranky buttons in the likes of Mike Carlton (SMH) like nothing else
When push comes to shove Australian tanks save Australian soldiers' lives. Australian soldiers will die on some operation in the future because the ignorance of the tank haters will have removed the capability from the inventory. You get fired up about RW battlefield lift (and related); I get fired up about the undeserved and unjustified position that armour in general, and tanks in particular, have in the ADF's and the Gummint's view of the world.
Sorry for the thread hijack folks.