Even as the Indian Army has decided to go with a limited number of India-made Wheeled Armoured Platform (WhAP) combat vehicles, Morocco has signed a deal with Tata Group for the manufacture of the WhAP 8x8 in the country with a minimum 35 percent indigenous content.
There have been reports that while the Indian Army inducted WhAP, jointly built by Tata and DRDO, into Central Reserve Police Forces (CRPF) in Kashmir in what the CRPF claimed was part of the efforts to improve operational efficiency, the ministry of defence is more keen on inducting Stryker infantry combat vehicle (ICV) made by US-based General Dynamics Land Systems.
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According to media reports, Tata is set to build nearly 150 combat vehicles for Morocco's defence forces, to be supplied over three years.
Ladakh Trials of the #DRDO-TATA WhAP (Wheeled Armoured Platform). pic.twitter.com/0IQwoaxKoQ
— Defence Decode® (@DefenceDecode) January 27, 2022
"The contract has been signed between the Indian firm and Morocco for building 150 of these vehicles for their armed forces," news agency ANI quoted defence sources as saying.
Morocco intends to scale up the indigenous content upto 50 per cent eventually.
For the past few months, trials for the WhAP vehicles have been going on in the northwest African nation.
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Designed for optimised survivability, all-terrain performance and increased lethality, WhAP 8x8, the flagship product of Tata Advanced Systems, is incorporated with critical technologies like an integrated power pack with automatic transmission, floatation and propulsion.
According to the company, the modularity and scalability capabilities of WhAP help this platform to be easily customised to cater to various missions and operating conditions, including navigating through muddy or slushy terrains.
