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AMV at IDEX
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Patria recently announced a deal with the United Arab Emirates to buy its Armored Modular Vehicle 8×8 wheeled armored personnel carriers. The Finnish vehicle offers a strong mix of features, and is the only vehicle of its class to submit to and pass the South African ARMSCOR’s mine resistance tests. Variants include an armored personnel carrier (APC), up-gunned infantry fighting vehicle (IFV), AMOS heavy mortar system, command post, workshop and battlefield ambulance. Defense Aerospace reports that all substantive information re: numbers, types, delivery dates, et. al. is being kept private at the customer’s request. Reports indicate that the UAE’s Bin Jabr Group will support the vehicle in-country, and that local production in the U.A.E. is being studied as a supplement to production in Finland.

The AMV family has become a strong competitor in the wheeled armored personnel carrier market, winning orders in Finland, Poland, Croatia, South Africa, and Slovenia, and competing in the USA to replace the US Marine Corps’ LAVs.

UAE BMP-3
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This deal has actually been in the works for some time now. A 24t extended AMV variant has undergone extensive local trials since 2006, and the UAE’s IDEX defense exhibition has featured an AMV fitted with a BMP-3 turret.

The UAE is the largest global operator of BMP-3 tracked IFVs, with almost 600 in inventory. They had reportedly been thinking about placing some BMP-3 turrets on wheeled armored personnel carriers, which would complement the tracked BMP-3 force with a medium IFV counterpart that offered better on-road mobility and mileage, but kept the same firepower levels.

The BMP-3’s turret turret packs more wallop than other IFVs around the world, mounting a 2A70 100mm gun/missile launcher, plus a coaxial 2A72 30mm autocannon and a 7.62mm machine gun. The turrets can also be fitted with additional anti-tank or anti-aircraft missiles, to upgrade their firepower even further. Earlier BMP-1 models had serious accuracy issues with their main guns, but a combination of better ballistics and the ability to fire guided 9M117/ 9UBK10-3/ AT-10 Stabber rounds from the 100mm gun have improved the BMP-3’s performance. This was demonstrated in the UAE’s rigorous testing against M2/M3 Bradley and Warrior IFVs, which led to the surprise selection of the Russian vehicle.