25 May 2023
by Christopher Petrov
Hungary received the first four of 12 Leopard 2A4HU tanks in July 2020. (Hungarian government)
Brigadier General Gábor Lőrincz, commander of the Hungarian Defence Forces' land forces, outlined lessons learned from Hungary's transition to the Leopard 2 main battle tank (MBT) at SAE Media's Future Armoured Vehicles Central and Eastern Europe 2023 conference in Prague.
Hungarian forces have received a company of 12 Leopard 2A4 tanks that will be used to train crews and technicians as the country undertakes efforts to switch its MBT fleet from the T-72 to the Leopard 2. The initial 12 Leopard 2A4s will serve as a bridge between the T-72 and the more advanced Leopard 2A7HU that will begin to arrive from 2023 onwards. Forty-four vehicles are on order from Rheinmetall.
Brig Gen Lőrincz said that the tank force will be propelled from using adequate late-Cold War technology to modern systems, which presents immense challenges in training crews and maintainers. The Hungarians are also ordering support vehicles such as armoured recovery vehicles and armoured vehicle-launched bridge platforms, all based on the Leopard 2.
23 April 2024
by Vishal Sengupta & Sonny Butterworth
Mbombe 6 with Spys ROWS seen in Ukraine. (General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine)
A video released by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on 18 April shows a South African Mbombe 6 6×6 armoured vehicle equipped with a Ukrainian remotely operated weapon system (ROWS).
The video shows the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, being presented with and inspecting several armoured vehicles, including the Mbombe, at an undisclosed location.
The Mbombe 6 is a wheeled armoured personnel carrier (APC) designed and manufactured in South Africa by Paramount Group, as well as under licence in India, Jordan, and Kazakhstan. The vehicle comes with an all-welded steel armour construction providing protection against small-arms fire up to NATO Standardization Agreement (STANAG) 4569 Level 4 standards.
The vehicle features a mine-resistant honeycomb flat-bottomed hull design, which lowers its overall height and provides protection against a 10 kg anti-tank mine detonated underneath the hull or a wheel station.
22 April 2024
by Meredith Roaten
M10 Booker Combat Vehicle (pictured) will be put through its paces at Fort Liberty in boreal summer 2024. (US Army photo by Bernardo Fuller)
One company in the 82nd Airborne Division will be the first unit to perform operational testing on the new M10 Booker combat vehicle in boreal summer 2024 and will then become the first unit equipped if the testing is successful, army leaders announced on 18 April.
Testing at Fort Liberty, North Carolina, will focus on making sure the platform is baseline operational, Major General Glenn Dean, programme executive officer for Ground Combat Systems, told reporters on the sidelines of an army live-fire and commemoration event. Training for soldiers will focus on logistics and new maintenance after the unit receives the vehicles in July, Captain Rachel Ledbetter, company commander of the M10 Booker test detachment, 82nd Airborne Division, told Janes on 18 April.
While the Abrams M1A2 main battle tank (MBT) and M10 Booker share many commonalities, such as the Commander's Independent Thermal Viewer (CITV) and machine guns, the logistics tail is different. This means that the test detachment, which come from armoured backgrounds, will have to practice, Capt Ledbetter said.
19 April 2024
by Nicholas Fiorenza
Flatbed version of 10×10 Piranha HMC designed for example to carry large weapon system modules. (GDELS)
General Dynamics European Land Systems (GDELS) presented its 10×10 Piranha Heavy Mission Carrier (HMC) in a press release on 15 April.
The new Piranha version has a gross vehicle weight (GVW) of up to 40 tonnes and can carry a 17 tonne payload. It features a 10×10 all-wheel-drive-power-driveline and a multi-link suspension system with 1st/2nd and 4th/5th axle steering, which according to GDELS enables minimum axle loads to comply with European road regulations, cross-country mobility, and trench crossing capabilities with a reduced turning radius of less than 18 m.
Brigadier General Gábor Lőrincz, commander of the Hungarian Defence Forces' land forces, outlined le...
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