197 Piranha 5 8x8 armoured vehicles to be produced at Bucharest Mechanical Plant

The Bucharest Mechanical Plant will produce 197 Piranha 5 8x8 armoured vehicles, National Defence Minister Gabriel Les announced.

"We have repeatedly discussed the implementation of one of the essential endowment programs of the Romanian Armed Forces - 'The 8x8 armoured personnel carrier'. The first stage of this program, a contract with GDELS-Mowag was signed at the beginning of 2018 to acquire 227 carriers and derivatives, produced on the Piranha 5 platform, as well as the initial logistic support. According to the contract, with the exception of the first 30 carriers to be produced in the GDELS-Mowag facilities in Switzerland, the other 197 will be produced in Romania at the Bucharest Mechanical Plant," the minister wrote on Facebook.

On Friday, Gabriel Les paid a visit to the Bucharest Mechanical Plant, together with Economy Minister Niculae Badalau, to see the progress of the works on the assembly lines for the Army carriers.

"We have also discussed the first eight vehicles in the contract that have already arrived in the country after being assembled in Switzerland and the prospects for completing the testing and evaluation activities and the factory acceptance procedures for all the products to be delivered this year to MApN. We hope that the producer will be able to recover the deadlines already set in the delivery timetable," Gabriel Les said.

According to the contractual provisions, the first 36 products should have been delivered within a maximum of 12 months after the signing of the subsequent contract.

(Source photo: en.wikipedia.org)

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