Cohen (Elbit): We delivered 30 turrets for Piranha armored vehicles
The first lot of 30 turrets for Piranha V armored vehicles to be assembled in Romania was delivered by the main contractor General Dynamics, said Boaz Cohen, senior vicepresident of Elbit Systems Land.
He said they have delivered 30 turrets to GD, the main contractor. All turrets have parts made there and they will deliver 32 more turrets in 2020.
Ionut Gavriliu, General Manager Elmet Romania International, an Elbit subsidiary, spoke about the activity of the Bacau company. “We have 20 customers worldwide. We deliver products in Europe, USA, South America, Israel. We are very proud that we can also manufacture for Romania,” he said.
The official pointed out that most of the material use is of Romanian origin.
“We manufacture parts and the 30 mm turret that is part of Piranha V program. Most of the material we use comes from the local industry. We have collaborations with many contractors, Romanian companies, of which some bought numerical machines for their collaboration with us,”he pointed out.
The parts for turrets are made in the Bacau factory, are assembled in Magurele and turrets are then delivered to Bucharest Mechanical Works.
The first lot of 36 Piranha V armored vehicles will be delivered until the end of February, the defense minister said this month.
“We have a new engagement, a new masterplan to be completed with the delivery of the first lot of 36 armored vehicles in February. Then the whole program is reset ,”said Nicolae Ciuca at the inauguration of the Piranha V manufacture at Bucharest Mechanical Works.
Piranha V were contracted in January 2018 for 895 million euros from General Dynamics, which owns a manufacturing unit in Switzerland. The contract supposes the purchase of 227 vehicles of which a part will be assembled in Romania.