KABUL — By September, Canadian reconnaissance troops will be driving new turreted versions of the jeep they call the G-Wagon, armed with heavy machine-guns on top, their commanding officer said Wednesday.

Members of the reconnaissance platoon, 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry out of Edmonton, assumed responsibilities from their Quebec-based predecessors in and around the Afghan capital on Tuesday.

Attached to an armoured reconnaissance squadron from Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians), they are currently driving unmodified versions of the German-made armoured jeep, purchased earlier this year.

Now they will have about a dozen of the armed vehicles with a turret installed in the back.

Outfitted with C-6 machine-guns, they are expected to arrive in theatre by early September, said Col. Jim Ellis, commander of the 600-member Canadian contingent in Kabul.

"This (is) a very good capability for us," Ellis said. "It allows us to do close reconnaissance in the tight streets of Kabul if required or up into the tracks up and around the hilled areas around Kabul."

Ottawa accelerated the purchase of 802 of the hard-topped Mercedes Gelaendewagens after two Canadian soldiers were killed and three wounded by an anti-tank mine last Oct. 2.

They were driving along a goat track in a 19-year-old open and unarmoured Iltis jeep. A third Canadian died in a suicide bomb attack on an Iltis patrol Jan. 27.

About 100 G-Wagons, assigned to what was then a 2,000-member Canadian contingent, began arriving in Kabul in early March.

While they are ineffective against mines designed to disable a 60-tonne battle tank, the armour-plated four-wheel drives can pose a deterrent to attackers.

The basic G-Wagon costs $44,000. Ottawa purchased 160 with the full armour kit, which costs an additional $86,000. Including training and spare parts, the original package cost $126 million.

Last month, Ottawa exercised an $81-million option to buy another 357 G-Wagons, 20 of them armoured. It has also bought 1,060 GM Silverado utiltity vehicles.

The armoured reconnaissance soldiers primarily drive Coyote and LAV-3 armoured vehicles equipped with 25mm chain guns.

The G-Wagons that the infantry soldiers will be driving are four-door enclosed jeeps. Equipped with very effective air conditioning systems, their bullet-proof windows don't even roll down.

"It's better to have that machine-gun up top," Ellis said. "It gives them the ability to fire in self-defence."

The G-Wagons and Silverados will gradually replace 1,900 Iltises through August 2005.

There are about 120 Iltises still in Kabul, along with another fleet in Bosnia, where the Canadian military presence is being vastly reduced.

Ellis said the federal government is still considering a plan to hand the Kabul Iltises over to the cash-strapped Afghan National Army, or ANA. Or, he said, they may simply be sold for scrap.

A similar course will be followed in Bosnia, said Capt. Darren Steele, an army spokesman in Kabul.

A turnover to the ANA would include spare parts and service training, he added.

"It's just not financially or fiscally responsible to ship them back to Canada," Steele said.