The Department of National Defense said on Thursday that 14 out of the 28 "armored infantry fighting vehicles" ordered by the military from
These units will be equipped with the 76mm cannons taken from decommissioned Scorpion CVRTs (combat vehicle reconnaissance tracked), according to DND Assistant Secretary Patrick Velez.
These vehicles will also be fitted with modern fire control and thermal equipment, Velez said.
Aside from "fire support units," six of the Israeli-built armored vehicles are classified as "armored personnel carrier" models, four as "infantry fighting vehicles" and the remaining four as "recovery and repair" units.
The contract for the armored units, which is worth P888 million, was awarded to Israeli's leading defense manufacturer,
For security reasons, Velez declined to give other specifics but stressed that these armored vehicles "are very capable."
Full delivery of the vehicles is expected within a year or around January 2015.
The PA, which has around 10 infantry divisions, is equipped with 343 AFVs (armored fighting vehicles).
Capt. Anthony Bacus, Army spokesperson, said earlier that these AFVs are distributed to the various infantry units to provide them with mobility and additional firepower.
"Around 85 percent of these AFVs are on green status (fully mission capable) while another 10 percent are on yellow status (undergoing repair) and five percent are on red (beyond repair)," he added.
Some 150 of these are the United Kingdom-built GKN "Simba," with the remaining AFVs consisting of United States-designed V-150 and V-200 APCs, M-113 "Bradley," Turkish-made ACV-300s and British Scorpion CVRTs.
These AFVs give the PA dependable armor capability and are organized into a 14-vehicle mechanized infantry companion for deployment with regular units.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=605848
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