- Yes
- No
A British built, Swiss designed vehicle with a Belgian turret marketed to clients in the Middle East.
Introduction
In January 1991, GKN Defence (soon to become Alvis Vehicles) announced that Swiss company MOWAG had awarded them a contract to construct a significant number of Pirahna 8x8 AFVs for one of of MOWAGs middle eastern customers. This contract was for a total of 100 - 120 vehicles built by Alvis, of six different variants, to the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Defence and Aviation (MODA). These included ambulance, recovery, surveillance, VIP APCs, and Mortar variants of the Piranha.
Following this successful partnership, MOWAG and Alvis signed an agreement which licensed Alvis to become a System Prime Contractor for the design, integration, production, and marketing of the Alvis Vehicles Piranha 8x8 for for agreed customers.
Subsequently, Alvis enjoyed moderate success producing, marketing, and exporting the Piranha 8x8. In 1994, Oman ordered a total of 80 Alvis Piranhas, with an agreed option for 46 further vehicles.
As well as producing a variety of vehicles for middle eastern customers, Alvis constructed a company demonstrator vehicle, used to mount a variety of turrets and market the vehicle to potential export customers. One such turret was the Belgian Cockerill 90mm LCTS turret - this export demonstrator equipped with the 90mm turret is the vehicle discussed in this suggestion.
This export demonstrator caught the interest of Qatar, who ordered a total of 40 Alvis Piranhas, 36 of which would be armed with the Cockerill 90mm LCTS. These remain in service with Qatar to this day.
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