Kazakhstan Paramount Engineering (KPE) is ramping up production of Arlan armored vehicles at its new facility in Kazakhstan. The first vehicles were delivered in August 2016. The latest batch was recently delivered to the Kazakh Special Forces as the next batch, due to be delivered in 2018, is already in production. Arlan is the localized version of the Marauder MRAP that was modified to meet the harsh winter conditions in the region.
Arlan has a high mine protection equivalent to STANAG 4569 Level 3A/3B – which is equal to the blast of 8kg in TNT equivalent under each wheel and same under the hull, 50kg in TNT equivalent at a distance of 5m. Ballistic protection meets STANAG 4569 Level 3, withstanding shots from any small arms with 7.62mm caliber armor-piercing rounds, Dragunov sniper rifle, and 12.7mm caliber NATO standard rounds. The winterization included additional heating of the crew cabin, changing specifications of all fluids, lubricants, and fuels to an all-season type covering a range of 100 degrees Celsius from minus 50 to plus 50 Degrees Celsius, and installation of heated ballistic windows.
The Arlan delivered to the Kazakh Special Forces is equipped with various auxiliary equipment including navigation, computing and communication suite, night vision and IR sensors, roof mounted wire cutting blades, hydraulically operated barricade breaker blade mounted to the front of the vehicle.
The new 15,000m2 armored vehicle factory KPE established in Astana has a capacity of more than 200 vehicles per year. It is the largest armored vehicle factory in Central Asia and the first defense manufacturing plant of such scale of capability in Kazakhstan. KPE is expected to deliver such vehicles to the Ministry of Defense, Special Forces, and other law enforcement agencies in Kazakhstan. Uzbekistan is also interested in the vehicle, as well as Jordan.
Kazakhstan Paramount Engineering (KPE) is the joint venture between the government-owned and Kazakhstan Engineering and South African Paramount Groups. According to Ivor Ichikowitz, Paramount Group Chairman, the new facility was erected in Kazakhstan in less than two years. “We have built a new state-of-art armored vehicle factory from the ground up, we transferred skills to establish a highly efficient local workforce, we industrialized a new vehicle, and now we are ramping up production as we further increase deliveries to our customers.” According to Ichikowitz, this achievement proves his company’s ‘portable production model’ vision. “It shows that our portable production model works. It shows that with the right partners we can set up production anywhere in the world and deliver world-class technologies to our customers in a fast and efficient way.”
