By WENDELL MINNICK
KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia’s top armored vehicle manufacturer, Deftech, has begun the qualification stage for its eight-wheel-drive AV-8 armored wheeled vehicle and will produce 257 units with 12 variants for the country’s Army when tests are concluded, said Deftech CEO Amril Samsudin this week at the Defence Services Asia exhibition here.
The AV-8 program is part of a manufacturing partnership agreement with Turkey’s FNSS Defense Systems and is based on the FNSS-designed PARS (Leopard) multimission wheeled vehicle, an FNSS source said.
Deftech and FNSS began discussions in 2008 and came to an agreement in 2010, Amril said. “We will deliver the first of 12 units to the Army by the end of this year, … and expect the final delivery by the end of 2018.”
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