Arquus (formerly known as ACAT) has completed its 500th Bastion Long Range Desert Patrol vehicle which has been in production since 2012.
The Bastion can transport eight combat soldiers as well as military equipment. The most recent model has a four-cylinder 270hp engine compared to the earlier 180hp version.
Several African armies operate Bastion and it has become a common vehicle used in counter-terrorism missions as part of the French-led G5 Sahel security alliance.
Shephard Defence Insight data shows that there are 23 Bastions in use in Cameroon, 12 in Ethiopia, 12 in Kenya, 19 in Mali, 43 in Senegal and 13 in Somalia.
During 2019, the Arquus Saint-Nazaire factory manufactured a total of 1,350 vehicles, including 1,200 VT4 liaison vehicles for the French Army.
The armoured vehicles are fitted with 12.7mm heavy machine guns and came off the production line with specific Estonian requirements. Only the communications subsystems and some other minor equipment were added to vehicles in Estonia.
The newly disclosed Thales UK Vehicle Mounted SquadNet Radio (VMSR) offers full interoperability with the soldier radio variant to provide secure and reliable voice connection.
Full electrification of their land and air vehicles may be beyond modern militaries for now. But how close are they to the tipping point of the widespread use of electric vehicles?
The contract follows news released in 2023 that a first customer had taken into service Pearson Engineering’s new Slice system enabling the interoperability of Front-End Equipment (FEE) between main battle tanks and dedicated engineering vehicles.
When compared to some other wheeled artillery systems Archer has the advantage of quicker deployment and relocation as the complete fire mission is carried out without the crew leaving the protected cab at the front.
The system had been previously proven to work against rotary and fixed-wing kamikaze drones, with Aselsan now working on new capabilities for Gökberk to counter UAV swarms.
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