Turkish army needs more MRAP vehicles and 184 new tracked armoured personnel carrier 2207134

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Defence & Security News - Turkey
 
 

Monday, July 22, 2013 04:30 PM
 
Turkish army needs more MRAP vehicles and 184 new tracked armoured personnel carrier.
Turkey will buy scores of armored vehicles and weapon carriers under two contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars, officials said. In the first deal, Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz said on July 3 that Turkey would look for a new supplier for the 175 mine-resistant, ambush-protected (MRAP) vehicles a local company failed to deliver.
     

The KIRPI is a 4x4 armoured vehicle in the category of MRAP designed and manufactured by the Turkish Company BMC.
     

Procurement officials said that in addition to the 175 Kirpis for the Army, the police force could order 20 more. Follow-on orders from the Army and the police are also likely, they said.

This year, the Turkish Armed Forces terminated a contract with Turkish armored vehicles producer BMC for the acquisition of 468 Kirpi vehicles. The Kirpi is the country’s first locally designed and developed MRAP.

Under a 2009 contact with the Turkish government, BMC produced and delivered an initial 293 Kirpi vehicles but failed to comply with the original delivery schedule.

At the same time, Turkish Undersecretariat for Defense Industries announced a two-way competition to acquire 184 tracked and 76 wheeled armored weapon carriers. In late June, the office sent requests for proposal to two local armored vehicle manufacturers, Otokar and FNSS.

During the Defense Exhibition IDEF 2013, The Turkish Company Otokar has unveiled a new new tracked armoured vehicle personnel carrier, the TULPAR. The TULPAR is a next generation of armoured infantry fighting vehicle (AIFV) and armoured personnel carrier (APC) that can meet the land defence needs of future for the armed forces in countries that want to acquire modern platforms and technologies.

Procurement officials estimate this contract to be worth anywhere from $150 million to $200 million.
     

The new Turkish-made tracked armoured vehicle personnel carrier TULPAR was unveiled during the defense exhibition in Istanbul, IDEF 2013.