11/17/2013
By VMSB

The European missile house MBDA announced it has completed the integration and factory acceptance test of the first MPCV (Multi-Purpose Combat Vehicle) mobile air defence system.

These weapon systems represent the first production batch. They will be shipped for delivery to the customer country before the end of the year. The systems were ordered in February 2011 by the Saudi Arabian firm CAESAR International for the Saudi Arabian National Guard (SANG).

A final assembly line is being set up by MBDA in the customer country for integration of MPCV weapon stations on to protected wheeled combat vehicles.

Developed in cooperation with Rheinmetall Defence Electronics (RDE), MPCV consist of a remotely controlled turret armed with four ready-to-fire MBDA MISTRAL 2 very-short range surface-to-air missiles and a single 12.7 mm heavy machine gun which are coupled to SEOSS electro-optical sensor. The turret is mounted on a modified 4×4 Unimog U5000 chassis based Soframe Anibal mine-protected wheeled armoured vehicle. The vehicle is fitted with side-mounted smoke dischargers, communications and inertial navigation system.

Other truck-mounted modules including detection, command and control and coordination systems also were acquired.

A variant of MPCV armed with MBDA MMP anti-tank missile system is proposed by MBDA. The missile is currently being developed.

Note that CAESAR 155 mm self-propelled artillery system purchased for the SANG comprise locally assembled 6×6 high-mobility trucks built by Soframe with modified Unimog U5000 chassis.