Another project involving SECANT, which offers turnkey solutions with its advanced engineering, design and production capabilities, has been completed successfully. The M4K 8X8 Mine-Protected Recovery Vehicles project was launched by the Turkish Presidency of Defence Industries (SSB), with MPG as the prime contractor, to satisfy an urgent need of Turkish Land Forces Command. The serial production phase of the project has now been completed and the vehicles were delivered to their end users in August. SECANT’s involvement included the design of ballistic and mine protected cab, and the integration of operational equipment.
The project was launched with a very tight schedule to meet the urgent need, and SECANT had to design the vehicle cabin from scratch, equipping it with the highest level of ballistic and mine protection, developed indigenously by the company. In contrast to the current trends, SECANT developed a lightweight metallic armour rather than a composite solution. Although it is known that composite armours are lighter than their metallic counterparts, SECANT’s indigenous and innovative approach managed to achieve a similar weight, but with a protection solution that is four times as effective.
SECANT also carried out comprehensive R&D works for the vehicle’s spall liners, as another requirement of the project. The spall liners, which protect human life by preventing the dispersal of shrapnel inside the cab in the event of the vehicle’s armour being breached, have been developed using entirely domestic and national means. The domestically supplied raw materials used for the spall liners contributed significantly to level of indigenousness of the project.
Following the design process, the first prototype of the vehicle underwent testing to verify the protection level of the cabin against mines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Due to the tight schedule of the project, the tests were carried out on the very first prototype, and the end user and the procurement authority has witnessed this very first tests. The prototype passed all the consecutive tests successfully.
Summarizing their achievements in the project; Yılmaz Erbil, Founder of SECANT, said: “Our young and ambitious team is eager to overcome any challenges, and this can clearly be seen in the M4K 8X8 -Mine-Protected Recovery Vehicle. The project had a very tight schedule, having been launched to satisfy an urgent need, and despite the limited time and the need to design several elements from scratch, we are proud of the results we have achieved. The solution we have developed proved to be so successful that we ended up using the same prototype for all of the blast tests, where normally a different prototype would generally be used for each test in similar situations in the sector.
I would like to thank Turkish Land Forces Command, the SSB and MPG for entrusting us with this project. We will continue serving the sector with new projects in the upcoming period.”
About SECANT
SECANT offers turn-key solutions in the areas of survivability, platform development and advanced composites. SECANT develops indigenous ballistic armour solutions for all protection levels defined by NATO STANAG 4569 for the defence and aerospace sector with its SMAS© (Secant Modular Armour Systems) ballistic solution family, which features metallic and composite add-on armours, spall liners and improvised explosive device armours. SECANT can also design complete armoured platforms upon request.
To date, SECANT has successfully completed around 35 projects, working with more than 15 national and international institutions and organisations, including BMC, ASELSAN, MPG, METEKSAN DEFENCE and IAG. In these projects, the company has been involved in works on nearly 20 platforms and systems.