United Arab Emirates has issued international request for 600 8x8 armoured combat vehicles 1602124

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Defense News - United Arab Emirates
 
 
Thursday, February 16, 2012, 09:16 AM
 
United Arab Emirates has issued an international request to buy 600 8x8 armoured combat vehicles.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has issued an international request for proposals for up to 600 8x8 wheeled combat vehicles, with responses due in March 2012. The UAE has already purchased five Patria AMVs in its 8x8L configuration to meet an urgent operational requirement. These have been fitted with the turret of the Russian BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicle (IFV), which is used in large numbers by the UAE. This version of the AMV remains fully amphibious with the minimum of preparation.
     

Patria AMV armoured vehicle with BMP-3 turret at IDEX 2011 defence exhibition in United Arab Emirates
(Credit photo Army Recognition)
     

Candidate vehicles are expected to include the ARTEC Boxer (Germany), BAE Systems Land Systems (South Africa) RG41, FNSS Savunma Sistemleri Pars (Turkey), General Dynamics European Land Systems Piranha 5 (Switzerland), Iveco Defence Systems Freccia (Italy), Nexter Systems VBCI (France), Otokar Arma (Turkey), Patria AMV (Finland), BTR (Russia) and BTR-4 (Ukraine). Some of these have undergone summer trials in the UAE in their baseline armoured personnel carrier (APC) configuration.

For this new class of 8x8 combat vehicle, the United Arab Emirates is demanding a high level of protection and that about 400 will again be fitted with the BMP-3 turret, although in this case the vehicles will not be required to be amphibious. The remaining 200 units will be specialised versions and troop carriers. As part of any potential contract award, some assembly or production would be undertaken in the UAE, which in recent years has made a major effort to increase its local defence manufacturing capability.

Apart from the 34 Guardian BTR-3U (8x8) amphibious APCs used by its marine unit, the UAE operates mainly tracked vehicles. These include a fleet of over 600 Russian-supplied BMP-3 IFVs as well as a number of more specialised versions, such as the BREM-L armoured recovery vehicle.