Kazakh armoured vehicle manufacturing under threat

Kazakhstan armoured vehicle producer Kazakhstan Paramount Engineering (KPE) has issued an open letter to the country’s president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, calling for the continued acquisition of vehicles from the company following a sudden decline in orders.

The letter, confirmed to Janes by a KPE spokesperson on 27 August, said that orders for the Arlan from the Ministry of Defence for delivery in 2020/21 had been cut from 30 to 11, and that no order for the following year had been concluded. The company noted that the 2017 memorandum of co-operation with the MoD in July 2017 called for 274 Arlan vehicles and 106 Barys armoured fighting vehicles.

Deliveries of the Arlan have been curtailed, leaving the future of its producer, Kazakhstan Paramount Engineering, in doubt. (KPE)

Without further orders, the company claims, the facility will face closure in November and go into bankruptcy with a debt of KZT9 billion (USD21.3 million). Key requirements for ensuring sustainability for the company’s operations, KPE said, included an order for 10 Barys 8×8 vehicles for testing and evaluation, an increase in the Kazakh state defence order for 30 Arlans for 2020/21 and a continuing commitment to that level, and the development and approval of a medium- and long-term strategy for equipping the country’s armed forces with armoured wheeled vehicles.

In a press release sent to Janes , the company also outlined a number of other development programmes that it was working on for the Barys 8×8 and 6×6 vehicles, which included the development of a 120 mm mortar carrier variant of the Barys 6×6, the Ansar 30 mm and Sunqar 12.7 mm remote-controlled weapons stations for the Barys 8×8, and the Shugyla automatic fire-control system.