ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — United Arab Emirates company NIMR announced on the last day of Abu Dhabi's International Defense Exhibition that it would build more than 1,750 combat vehicles for the country's land forces.
NIMR is a subsidiary of Emirates Defence Industries Company.
NIMR will build 1,500 JAIS four-wheel drive and six-wheel drive infantry fighting vehicles, 150 HAFEET 630A artillery support vehicles in observation and command and control configurations, and 115 AJBAN 440A vehicles equipped with anti-tank guided missiles systems. The vehicles are to be delivered in 2018, the company said in a statement Thursday.
The company had just unveiled its JAIS six-wheel drive mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle at IDEX earlier in the week as well as the Rapid Intervention Vehicle. The JAIS is named after the UAE’s Jebel Jais mountain in Ras Al Khaimah. It has 60 percent more protected coverage over the traditional design, the company said.
The JAIS vehicle comes in a variety of variants including infantry fighting vehicle, armored personnel carrier, ambulance, command and control, engineering, and recovery.
The vehicles will be built in NIMR’s facility, the largest military vehicle manufacturing facility in the Middle East and North Africa, the company said.
NIMR also signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Czech manufacturer VOP CZ for sales and production of the entire range of its armored vehicle products to the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary, according to the statement.
Jen Judson is an award-winning journalist covering land warfare for Defense News. She has also worked for Politico and Inside Defense. She holds a Master of Science degree in journalism from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kenyon College.
