First Turkish MRAP armoured personnel carrier Kirpi will soon be exported Iraq Afghanistan 0108111

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Defense News - Turkey
 
 
Monday, August 1, 2011, 08:25 PM
 
First Turkish MRAP armoured personnel carrier Kirpi will soon be exported in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Turkey's first indigenously produced MRAP mine resistant vehicle, the "Kirpi" already in service with the Turkish armed forces, will soon be exported to Afghanistan and Iraq.
     
     

Built by Turkey's BMC Turkish Defence company, the Kirpi was delivered to the Turkish armed forces for a total of 150 vehicles, and has orders for 350 more.

BMC, with headquarters in Izmir, is owned by industrial conglomerate Cukurova Holding and is one of the Turkey's leading commercial vehicle manufacturers active in the country's transportation market. It has been the nation's leading manufacturer of buses for domestic use, along with being the country's second-largest producer of trucks for export.

In 2009 Turkey's defense industry exported arms and other defense equipment worth $669 million, its highest level of exports in its history.

The Defense Industry Manufacturers Association, or SaSad, noted in a report that the 2009 export figures represented a 16 percent increase over 2008, which was $576 million and that the increase came "despite the global financial crisis."

SaSad data indicate, Turkey's defense industry exported arms worth $331 million in 2003, $196 million in 2004, $337 million in 2005, $352 million in 2006 and $420 million in 2007.

Of the 2008 exports, 33 percent were involved to space and aviation, 29 percent in land vehicles and other platforms, 13 percent in electronics and electro-optics exports, 9 percent apiece to weapons, ammunition, rockets, missiles, software and information technologies and another 7 percent in other miscellaneous sectors.