Israeli firm to bag contract for upgrade of 40 PH armored carriers – MaxDefense
Israeli Elbit Systems Land and Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Intelligence (C4I) is expected to get a contract from the Philippine government to upgrade 40 Philippine Army M113A2 armored personnel carriers (APC) through direct negotiation, MaxDefense Philippines said today.
MaxDefense Philippines is a known Philippines defense and security observer and analyst.
40 M113A2s to be upgraded are part of 114 APCs donated by United States through its Excess Defense Article (EDA) program. These APCs were delivered in 2015.
Elbit, according to MaxDefense, will be contracted to convert the 40 APCs into platforms armed with a 12.7mm machine guns in Remote Controlled Weapons Stations (RCWS) and Armored Mortar Carriers armed with a Soltam Cardom 120mm mortar.
According to MaxDefense, budget for the mentioned upgrades will be sourced from Revised Armed Force of the Philippines Modernization Program (RA 1034), First Horizon-second list.
First Horizon-second list was derived from the cancelled Shore Based Missile System (SBMS) program.
Elbit already delivered 28 refurbished and upgraded APCs to Philippine military with contract price of PHP882 million, signed in 2014. Upgrades included installation of 25 mm unmanned turrets, 12.7 mm remote controlled weapon stations (RCWS), fire control systems (FCS) for 90 mm turrets, and conversion to recovery units.
(Update)