Romanian army orders additional armored vehicles in modernization program

Romania has ordered an undisclosed number of additional 8x8 Piranha III wheeled armored vehicles from Madrid-based General Dynamics European Land Systems (GDELS) as part of its army's vehicle modernization program, upi.com reports. According to the same source, the contract was signed last December and it is Romania’s fifth with GDELS. The Romanian army has been using Piranha vehicles since 2006, GDELS said. In September of last year, Romania launched a public tender to equip its ground forces. The state wanted to buy between 40 and 286 armored SUVs that have platforms for antitank missile systems. At the beginning of 2016, the Defense Ministry granted a contract of EUR 93 million to the German-Israeli consortium Eurospike GmbH for the supply of portable anti-tank missile systems. At the end of last year, the Romanian authorities were close to signing a contract with Rheinmetall, a German company that builds military equipment and vehicles, for building an armored personnel carrier in Romania. GDELS is made up of GDELS-Germany, GDELS-Mowag, GDELS-Santa Barbara Sistemas, GDELS-Steyr and GDELS-Czech. They were unified as a single business unit under one European parent company in 2003. It has five European operating sites located in Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. The company designs, manufactures and delivers land combat systems, including wheeled, tracked and amphibious vehicles, bridge systems, armaments and munitions. In 2016 GDELS signed a USD 600 million contractwith Denmark for the delivery of 309 PIRANHA 5 armored personal carriers. Controversies related to the Romanian Defense Ministry’s budget editor@romania-insider.com (Photo source: www.gdels.com)