DND Inks Contract for 28 Israeli-Made 'Armored Infantry Fighting Vehicles
By Priam F. Nepomuceno
MANILA, Jan. 16 (PNA) -- The Department of National Defense (DND) has formally signed the contact for the delivery of 28 "armored infantry fighting vehicles" which will boost the inventory of the Army's light armored units.DND Assistant Secretary Patrick Velez said that this project is worth P882 million. He said the contract was already signed last week.He added that the contract was awarded to Israeli's leading defense manufacturer, Elbit Systems Land and C4I.Four of the 28 "armored infantry fighting vehicles" are recovery models which can be used to tow units damaged or incapacitated in the battlefield.For security reasons, Velez declined to give specifics of the vehicles' armament, speed and armor but stressed that these armored infantry fighting vehicles "are very capable."
Full delivery of these vehicles is expected within a year or around January 2015.The PA, which has around 10 infantry divisions, is equipped with 343 AFVs (armored fighting vehicles).Capt. Anthony Bacus, Army spokesperson, said earlier that these AFVs are distributed to the various infantry units to provide them with mobility and additional firepower."Around 85 percent of these AFVs are on green status (fully mission capable) while another 10 percent are on yellow status (undergoing repair) and five percent are on red (beyond repair)," he added.Some 150 of these are the United Kingdom-built GKN "Simba" with the remaining AFVs consisting of US designed V-150 and V-200 APCs, M-113 "Bradley", Turkish made ACV-300s and British Scorpion CVRTs.
