Bron: www/natodays.cz
For several years now, General Dynamics European Systems (GDELS) has been participating in the annual NATO Days in Ostrava & Czech Air Force Days. It will demonstrate the state-of-the-art modular BVP platform, which is currently on the market. This is the platform of the ASCOD 42 infantry fighting vehicle, which the company offers to the Czech army as part of a tender for new tracked combat vehicles.
During NATO Days in recent years, the ASCOD 42 has already been introduced as a fire support vehicle with a turret fitted with a 120 mm calibre weapon, or as an infantry fighting vehicle with a UT-30 MK2 unmanned turret.
GDELS will premiere another development stage of the technological demonstrator of the ASCOD 42 infantry fighting vehicle with the MT-30 MK2 crew tower, which will also take part in the planned military tests of functional samples. All variants of the ASCOD 42 vehicle presented at NATO Days in recent years demonstrate the variability of the ASCOD platform and the possibilities of installing various combat systems and interior layouts.
GDELS has been operating on the Czech market since the last decade through its GDELS-Czech branch, in the beginning of which was the project Pandur II 8×8 CZ vehicles for the Czech Armed Forces. Even in the case of further modernization of the Czech Land Forces by introducing the ASCOD 42 platform, GDELS counts on the involvement of Czech companies, and thus wants to expand the ties and cooperation that already exist. For example, Czech companies have been involved in the production of Pandur vehicles for Kuwait in recent years, supplying components to Piranha 5 vehicles for Romania and Denmark, or to ASCOD vehicles for the British Ajax program.
In the case of ASCOD 42 project for the Czech Army, GDELS counts on the involvement of the VOP company in the position of system integrator. Last year and this year, GDELS representatives also signed memoranda with several Czech companies that could thus participate in the production and supply of ASCOD 2 vehicles for the Czech Army.