Sand Cat.
The factory on the northern border already produces 250 tools a year (Photo: Ronan Topelberg)
The Ministry of Defense will purchase for the IDF 50 bullet-proof vehicles of the Sand Cat model, for use in the territories. The vehicles are based on the Ford F550 pickup truck platform, which facilitates their ongoing maintenance.
Although over the years, Pelsan has become one of the most prominent vehicle protection factories in the world, it is awarded, among other things, huge deals With the US Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Defense and the IDF have so far refrained from purchasing armored vehicles from him, except in a few cases where the factory's vehicles were used as a platform to carry systems adapted to them.
Even when the ministry went out to tender for the purchase of an enlarged armored vehicle to replace the IDF "David" vehicles, the "real" one, the ministry chose an armored vehicle from the tag company from the USA in cooperation with the aerospace industry, rather than the Israeli vehicle.
But now the urgent operational needs took their toll.
Pelsan, which currently produces about 250 such vehicles a year for foreign customers, will supply them to the IDF from its existing inventory.
Urgent operational challenges
The IDF Sand Cut (Photo: Pelsan)
The defense system explained today that "in cooperation between the Director of Procurement (Director) at the Ministry of Defense, the Land Arms Command and the Technology and Logistics Division in the IDF, and in the face of the operational challenges facing the forces in the field, an expedited procedure was initiated for the procurement of bulletproof vehicles. The vehicles are available for immediate delivery and will be integrated into operational activity quickly."
The value of the deal is estimated at about NIS 50 million.
Avi Dadon, Deputy Director and Head of the Directorate at the Ministry of Defense, stated that "this is a significant and fast procurement process that brings important operational capability and an immediate response to the needs of the protected mobility of IDF soldiers.
The agreement with the Pelsan company will also include an end-to-end maintenance package, which will improve the availability of the vehicle fleet.
We greatly appreciate the local industry for the quick mobilization in favor of responding to the IDF soldiers"
The Chief of Staff of the Land Arm, Brigadier General Aviram Sela, added that "mobility is a fundamental component of the competence of the Land Forces. The deal to equip the Pelsan vehicles expresses a combination of a full response to the operational need we have placed in the context of the protection and mobility of the fighters and relevance in time. The Land Arm maintains in cooperation with the Technology and Logistics Division - Continuous situational assessment to ensure the competence of the regular and reserve ground forces - for the defense mission at the borders.
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