Locally designed amoured vehicles better at withstanding mines: SLEME

The Sri Lanka Army is developing a new, indigenous, Mine Protected Vehicle (MPV) which is designed to have significantly better survivability characteristics than the current fleet of armoured vehicles in service.

"The first batch of the new vehicles is due to roll out of the Sri Lanka Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (SLEME) production facility by the end of June and have been earmarked to be sent to the Peacekeeping Mission in Mali," said Maj Gen Duminda Sirinaga, Director General, Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.

The new vehicle comes against the backdrop of an Improvised Explosive Device ( IED) attack on an army Armoured Personnel Carrier, which resulted in the deaths of two Sri Lankan Peacekeepers last month.

SLEME is refurbishing nine ' Unibuffel MK II' MPVs with new locally- designed blast shock absorption seats and better protection as an urgent operational requirement for Peacekeeping duties.

The seats had been identified as an urgent requirement in-order to prevent life threatening spinal injuries that occupants face when an MPV is caught in a landmine or IED blast. The locally made seat was developed with assistance from the Moratuwa University. The new vehicle comes with the option to add further armour protection, and radio frequency jammers to neutralise radio-controlled IEDs, among others.

The new MPV is a 6x6 wheeled armoured vehicle, called ' Avalon'. It comes with enhanced protection against anti- tank mines, IEDs, small arms fire, and offers greater payload carrying capacity, mobility and endurance, which are needed for long range convoy duties which Sri Lankan peacekeepers perform.

It is the latest in a long line of locally fabricated armoured vehicles developed by SLEME. It seats 12 troops and a crew of 2, and can mount a range of weapons as per mission requirements. The MPV is to be built on a rugged, commercially-available chassis which will enable high operational availability and cost effectiveness.

A team of SLEME personnel including a mechatronics engineer and a mechanical engineer worked on developing the new long-wheel base 6x6 MPV following a request by Army Commander Lt Gen Mahesh Senanayake in November 2018. Each Avalon is estimated to cost Rs21 million, which the army claimed was 1/3 the cost of a similar vehicle of foreign make. "This is a significant saving to the tax payer and an invaluable addition to our peacekeepers' inventory," said Maj Gen Sirinaga.

"At present the Unicorn MK VI vehicle in service with our contingent in Mali has the best protection level, and is the most capable in terms of mobility," Maj Gen Sirinaga added. The Sri Lanka Army has the capacity to design and develop in-house the necessary protected vehicles for present and future requirements, he claimed. SLEME began developing local armoured vehicles in 1983, with the first based on a commercially available TATA 5- ton truck chassis. It was named 'Yaka'. The development process picked up pace with the introduction of the Unicorn vehicles and later the improved 'Unibuffel' family with modernisation and new variants. SLEME had supplied the armed forces and police with over 300 armoured and mine-protected vehicles during the war.