South Korean company Kia Motors Corporation has won a tender for the supply of thousands of 2.5- and 5-tonne trucks to replace the Republic of Korea Army’s (RoKA’s) in-service KM250 and KM500 vehicles.
Company officials told Jane’s on 17 April that the company had emerged as the preferred bidder – over rival local company Hanwha Defense – in November 2019 with its 4×4 ‘Medium Standard Vehicle’ and 6×6 ‘5-tonne Bulletproof Kit Vehicle’, the latter of which also comes in an armoured variant.
The following month Kia signed a contract with the RoKA for the mass production of 7,000 units of the 2.5-tonne truck and 3,400 units of the 5-tonne platform from 2024 for KRW 1.7 trillion (USD1.4 billion) once development of the platforms has been completed. In addition, the company said it will manufacture 600 units of the armoured variant of the 5-tonne truck along with several other special variants of both vehicles.
Kia Motors has been awarded a contract to produce, among other things, 3,400 unarmoured units of its ‘5-tonne Bulletproof Kit Vehicle’ for the RoKA from 2024. An additional 600 armoured units of the vehicle (similar to this one) are also set to be produced. (Kia Motors)
The new vehicles, both of which were displayed at the 2019 Seoul International Aerospace and Defense Exhibition (ADEX) under the names ‘2½ tonne cargo truck’ and ‘Medium Tactical Vehicle (MTV)’, have a cab-over-engine (COE) configuration; unlike the KM250 and KM500 trucks, both of which are 6×6 and have a bonneted cab and have been in service with the RoKA and a few other countries for more than 40 years.
Speaking at ADEX 2019 about the armoured version of the 5-tonne truck, Yonki Chae from the special-vehicle segment of Kia Motors told Jane’s
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