A still from a video released on 14 August 2023 shows the version of the T-Kat light that subsequently entered service with Iraq's Special Forces Command. (Iraqi Ministry of Defence)
Iraq took delivery of 108 T-Kat armoured vehicles in 2023, according to Bulgaria's recently released submission to the United Nation Register of Conventional Arms (UNROCA).
Bulgaria reported both importing the vehicles from the Czech Republic without armament and then exporting them to Iraq with 100 12.7 mm heavy machine guns. Prague's UNROCA submission for 2023 has not been released yet.
The T-Kat is advertised by the Czech company Tatra Defence Industrial, with promotional images showing a vehicle that looks very similar to the SandCat made by the Israeli company Plasan.
The Iraqi Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced in August 2023 that Chief of the General Staff General Abdul Amir Yarallah had been briefed on the Czech-made T-Kat, without confirming the vehicle had been ordered. It released a video showing a vehicle that was badged as a T-Kat, but looked more like the simplified EX11 version that Plasan offers as a kit that clients can assemble on a Ford F-550 chassis in their own country.
The type was seen again on 6 January, when 24 vehicles armed with .50 Browning heavy machine guns featured in the parade in Baghdad that marked the Iraqi Armed Forces' 103rd anniversary on 6 January. They were operated by the Special Forces Command contingent.
For more information, please seeSandCat .
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