hand to purchase the Bison over the M113A3. While the prototype had seemingly won over Beatty, Colonel Dallaire was not convinced and continued to support the M113A3 acquisition, which caused DDGM to send a lobbyist to Ottawa to work on him, making largely the same arguments as DDGM had before; that the Bison would be more cost efficient for operation by the reservists over the tracked M113A3, that the Bison did not face the same restriction for use on roads as the tracked M113, and that the Regular Force would simply reacquisition new M113s, possibly implying that DDGM likely knew that the Regular Force would appropriate the new vehicles for their own use, as they later did with the Bison. Although Colonel Dallaire did not budge, the army sidestepped him and decided to purchase the Bison in July 1989 in the form of 149 "Bison" armoured personnel carriers, 18 "Bison CP" command posts, 16 "Wolf" 81 mm mortar carriers and 16 "MRV Bison" maintenance and recovery vehicles. The Bison (production version) differs from the baseline LAV-25 by raising the height of the roof, removing the turret ring, placing a commander's cupola behind the driver, and incorporating a rail mount system in the cargo/passenger compartment to quickly change mission specific equipment. The driver is seated in the front-left of the crew compartment. The commander has a slightly raised position directly behind the driver with access to his own hatch and mounted machine gun. The engine is to the right of the crew compartment. The Canadian Forces began upgrading the Bison between 2002 and 2008. The upgrades include improved engine power, new torsion bars, fittings for add-on armour, air conditioning, and the VRS respirator system for nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) defence. Variants The Bison's rail-mount system allows it to be adapted to a variety of roles without any major modifications. Bisons used by the Canadian Forces have been adapted for use as armoured personnel carriers (original configuration mostly replaced in this role by the LAV III), 81 mm mortar carriers, command post vehicles, field ambulances (32), mobile repair team (MRT) vehicles (32), armoured recovery vehicles (32), airspace coordination centre vehicle, electronic warfare vehicles (25), engineer vehicles equipped with hydraulic tools and NBC reconnaissance vehicles (4). Legacy and operational history The Bison is described by Peter Kasurak as being the first step on the road to the transformation of the Canadian Forces,