The Ministry of Defense is looking for a single SUV to replace Soviet UAZs

 

 The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine will soon announce a general open tender for the development of a single army SUV for all the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Such a selection, which is traditional in NATO countries, will be the first in the history of the Ukrainian army with reference to the Defense Express.

The vehicles developed under this competition should replace obsolete UAZs and a variety of cars that have been handed over to the army by volunteers since 2014.

    The problem with light vehicles in the Armed Forces has long been overdue - we have been driving "volunteer cars" for years, which have almost supplanted the obsolete "statutory" UAZs. At the beginning of 2021, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine planned to begin research and development work on the development of an army SUV, in accordance with the real needs of the army. In simple language, a Ukrainian "jeep" to replace a "UAZ".

    This procedure will be carried out for the first time under the new conditions. Requirements for this SUV will be announced to all representatives of the Ukrainian defense industry, both public and private enterprises at the same time.

    For some time, everyone should make prototypes. These machines will be sent immediately to state tests, where they will perform the same tests and tasks on equal terms. The winner of this competition will receive the right to supply his product to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, ”Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksandr Myronyuk told Defense Express.

That is, for the first time in the Ukrainian army, a global state approach will be introduced, which has long been practiced in NATO countries. When the law enforcement agency publicly announces the desired tactical and technical characteristics, collects proposals, conducts comparative tests of samples and selects the best option.

It is because of this principle, for example in the United States, that the Pentagon chooses armaments for its army. Through such competitions, such well-known models of armament as the M16 automatic rifle, Javelin anti-aircraft missile system, Abrams tank, and F-22 fighter were born. For example, the US military is now choosing the wheeled ACS in this way.

Such selection procedures allow to really choose the best sample, to stimulate on a competitive market basis the defense-industrial complex, and also to prevent situations when the only manufacturer can dictate the conditions.

It is important to note that the introduction of market conditions in the defense industry allows to solve a rather classic problem, when the developer of the best model can not deploy serial production in the required volumes.

For example, in the 1950s, the then-unknown Armalite won a competition for an automatic rifle in the United States, which later received the M16 index. But to produce the required number of rifles, the license was sold to Colt and other manufacturers, and the developer began to receive royalties.

In the 1980s, Texas Instruments won a competition for a new ATGM for the US Army, which featured giants such as General Dynamics and Raytheon. And in the 90's Raytheon for $ 2.95 billion bought the defense segment of the Texas company.
Photo: Dylan Malyasov

In general, especially in the case of Ukraine, the transition to open competitions for the army can significantly revitalize the defense industry, giving way to a number of projects and enterprises.