Malaysian army has taken delivery of the first 12 AV8 8x8 Infantry Fighting Vehicles Gempita 1012146

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Defence & Security News - Malaysia

 
 
Wednesday, December 10, 2014 11:55 AM
 
Malaysian army has taken delivery of the first 12 AV8 8x8 Infantry Fighting Vehicles "Gempita".
The Malaysian Army has taken delivery of the first 12 vehicles AV8 in armoured Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV) variant. These 12 new vehicles are the first of the 257 units in twelve variants which will be delivered to the Malaysian Armed, developed and manufactured by the Defense Company Deftech in Malaysia.
     
The Malaysian Army has taken delivery of the first 12 vehicles AV8 in armoured Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV) variant. These 12 new vehicles are the first of the 257 units in twelve variants which will be delivered to the Malaysian Armed, developed and manufactured by the Defense Company Deftech in Malaysia.
Deftech AV8 IFV fitted with one-man turret FNSS 25mm Sharpshooter at DSA 2014 defense exhibition in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
     

The group managing director of Deftech, Mister Tan Sri Mohd Khamil Jamil officially handed over the vehicles to the Malaysian Army Chief General Tan Sri Raja Mohamed Affandi Raja Mohamed Noor.

The 12 vehicles were designed, developed and manufactured by Deftech this year. Malaysian army will take delivery of 67 additional vehicles during next year. In the Malyasian army the vehicle will be named "Gempita".

In 2011, Malaysian army has signed a contract with Deftech for the delivery of 257 vehicles in twelve variants. The AV8 vehicle selected by the Malaysian military is based on the FNSS-designed PARS 8×8 multi-purpose, multi-mission, wheeled armored vehicle. The contract includes technology transfer arrangements to Deftech and logistics support for the Malaysian army, positioning the vehicle and its 12 variants to become Malaysia’s first indigenous family of 8×8 armored wheeled vehicle.

The IFV version that has just been delivered to the Malaysian Army is fitted with the one-man turret Sharpshooter developed and manufactured by the Turkish Company FNSS. The turret is armed with one 25 mm Bushmaster cannon and one 7.62mm coaxial machine MAG mounted to the left of the main armament.

The first prototype of the IFV vehicle fitted with the FNSS Sharpshooter was presented for the first time to the public this year during the defense exhibition DSA in Kuala Lumpur.

A total of 178 AV8s will have an APC configuration with 30-mm or 25-mm turret, or 12.7-mm remotely controlled weapon station. Other versions include armored surveillance vehicle with battlefield radar and mast mounted sensors (24), command vehicles (13), armored ambulances (9), armored recovery vehicles (9), maintenance vehicles (9), 120-mm mortar carriers (8), engineering and NBC reconnaissance vehicles (4) and signals vehicles (3).