UNIDEF announced that the new customer of its weapon integration solution for VIP protection vehicles is Czechia. Publishing the development with a press release on July 28, the company realized its first export consequently.
The VIP protection vehicles were armed with 6-barrel M134 miniguns, chambering 7.62x51mm rounds, integrated into a concealable turret. The vehicles will be used mainly for Czechia’s foreign missions, including United Nations operations.
As UNIDEF’s turret can be folded inside the vehicle, the vehicle will look like an ordinary civilian vehicle from outside, giving it a less threatening appearance compared to the vehicles with weapons visibly mounted on them. The turret can also be ready for action within seconds when required.
Ender Şaşal, General Coordinator at UNIDEF, highlighted that the concealable weapon integration had become one of the signature solutions of the company with the following words: “The feedback we received from the personnel serving in the field has clearly shown the advantages of carrying the weapon concealed, with some of them being: Having the platform not pose an immediate threat to the surroundings, and not become an immediate target; having the weapon system protected from the environmental effects, unlike solutions with fixed turrets; and not having the weapon damaged by passing under tunnels, overpasses and et cetera. We provide these advantages and more to our clients with our solutions like VIP protection vehicles and Armed Trailer System.”
UNIDEF had to work quickly after getting the contract for Czechia and therefore established a very useful and close cooperation with the main contractor LPP s.r.o team. The company officials went to Czechia immediately after project commenced and did laser measurements for the vehicles in question, completing the designs with the results of said measurements. The prototype design was tested on the vehicle during the second visit. The third and final visit to the country was for the integration of the final prototype. After all these processes were successfully finished, serial production, shipment, integration, and personnel training processes were commenced and concluded, with the whole project taking less than 6 months.
UNIDEF completed similar integrations successfully on vehicles that did not have to carry other payloads, however, the vehicles for Czechia project had extra equipment on the roof installed. This provided unique challenges for the company, constraining the area the turret can occupy. As such, UNIDEF focused on R&D and then developed a new solution that covers 15 percent less volume without compromising on mission effectiveness.
Şaşal commented on customer satisfaction with the following words: “This project was brought to us through one of our most prominent partners, Profense, which knew about our weapon integration capabilities very well. The project had a very limited time scope; however, we completed the project on time even though we needed some R&D time as well. As UNIDEF, we never leave our clients without solutions, we can respond quickly to their changing needs. However, we do not deviate from the focus of finding the right solutions in the sake of being fast. We carry out all these works with extremely competitive budgets.
The proactive outlook of our company along with our solutions make it very easy for our clients to decide working with us again.”
UNIDEF will provide a different version of this solution to Turkish Armed Forces as Remote-Controlled Armed Trailer System. This concept is enjoying a great deal of attention from end users, both in Türkiye and abroad as it can be used in border security and perimeter security for critical infrastructure missions without putting personnel at risk while being very mobile.