HEMUS 2024: Terem Holding to partially assemble Strykers in Bulgaria

The Bulgarian army is set to receive 183 Stryker vehicles in various configurations, with the majority being 90 units of M1296 infantry carrier vehicles equipped with a 30 mm cannon. (Janes/Christopher Petrov)

Bulgarian Ministry of Defense (MoD) owned Terem Holding will partially assemble Stryker armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs) scheduled to arrive in Bulgaria from mid-2025 onwards, the company's head of Research & Development, Luben Yovchev, told Janes at the HEMUS 2024 defence exhibition in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, on 6 June.

The partial assembly was negotiated to offset some of the USD1.5 billion investment made in purchasing the vehicles.

The deal includes 90 M1296 infantry carrier vehicles (ICVs), 17 M1126 ICVs, 33 M1130 command vehicles, nine M1132 engineer squad vehicles, 24 M1133 medical evacuation vehicles, and 10 M1135 nuclear, biological, chemical reconnaissance vehicles, along with various additional subsystems and heavy equipment transporters.

Terem Holding's executive director Kalin Dimitrov told local press on 17 May that Terem will be responsible for completing the final assembly of the Stryker vehicles, installing subsystems including radios, weapons, and night vision devices. Separately Yovchev told Janes that this assembly will include adding turrets to the Stryker hulls. This will be completed at the Terem's ‘Ivaylo' plant in Veliko Tarnovo, Dimitrov said, adding that General Dynamic Land Systems has also transferred technical documentation to enable the production of spare parts in the medium term.

In recent years, Terem has gained experience at integrating modern subsystems into vehicles for the Bulgarian army, notably the T-72 upgrade using subsystems from Elbit. The T-72 upgrade programme is due to be finished by the end of 2024.

For more information on the Stryker family of IFVs, please seeStryker .