DRB-Hicom Defence Technologies to supply 257 Turkish designed APCs worth $2.5 billion to Malaysia

Malaysia selected DRB-Hicom Defence Technologies (Deftech) , a Malaysian company, for production and supply of 257 armored personnel carriers locally based on the Turkish 8x8 Pars wheeled armored vehicle. The value of the Malaysian 'letter of intent' is worth over worth about US$2.5 billion. The Pars, developed and produced developed by the Turkish company FNSS is based on a design made by the U.S. company GPV. The prototype APC is expected to be delivered for testing to the Malaysian Army by 2011. Deftech is to build 12 variants from the base vehicle, including personnel carrier, anti-tank weapon carrier, command and control and anti-aircraft weapon vehicles. The APC version will be equipped with a two-man manned turret to be developed and produced by the South African company Denel. Sapura Thales Electronics (STE) will be the electronics system integrator. The cost of the new vehicle seems excessively high - about $9.8 million per unit. Malaysian defense officials explained that these figures represent the total life cycle cost of the program, including which usually includes design, development, logistical support and sustainment as well as non-recurring engineering costs and investments associated with the set-up of local production facilities in Malaysia to develop its armored vehicle manufacturing.