Turranga, new Indonesian armored vehicle


The Indonesian PT Karya Tugas Anda company (now operating under the Tugasanda Group brand) was established in 1982 and specializes mainly in the production of buses, vans and various special vehicles on commercial chassis. The Turranga armored vehicle is the first military development of the company, and after the success in selling the aircraft to the Indonesian Air Force, the company expects to continue its sales both to the Indonesian military and security forces, and for export to other ASEAN countries.


Turranga new Indonesian armored vehicle 2
The Turranga, manufactured by the Indonesian company PT Karya Tugas Anda (Tugasanda Group) and entered service with the ground command of the Indonesian Air Force. Bandung, October 2018 (Picture source: PT Karya Tugas Anda)


The Turranga armored vehicle is made on the chassis of the famous Ford 550 Super Duty pickup, keeping its engine (6.7-liter V8 diesel), transmission and suspension. The empty weight of the Turranga is 7,845 kg, its payload can reach 1,000 kg. The vehicle can transport up to 12 people, including two crew members. The V-shape armor body provides ballistic and IED protection according to the European B6 standard (protection against 7.62x51 mm bullets from a distance of 10 meters). Six of the 13 vehicles manufactured for the Indonesian Air Force are equipped with a remote-controlled machine gun station.

The ground command (Paskhas) of the Indonesian Air Force under the 2015 program ordered various Indonesian manufacturers a total of 119 wheeled armored vehicles, including 13 Turranga vehicles, as well as DMV-30A armored personnel carriers manufactured by the State-owned Anoa, Komodo armored vehicles from the State Defense Group PT Pindad, P2 APCs and P6 ATAVs.

Ground command (Paskhas) combines all ground components of the Indonesian Air Force. It consists of an airborne paratroop division of commandos (composed of three wings - a total of nine commando battalions totalling more than 4,000 people), a counter-terrorism unit of Bravo 90 (up to 700 people), a guard regiment and a guard of honor, an air base guard regiment (three battalions), a support regiment (including an armored cavalry battalion, an engineering battalion, an artillery division), a support regiment, a training center, and an air defense division (including two regiments; three more are in the formation stage). The forces of Paskhas are territorially distributed among the three divisions.