The IDF has been negotiating with Israel Military Industries (IMI) in recent months to upgrade hundreds of Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs) with improved armor against RPGs (rocket propelled grenades), some anti-tank missiles, and proximate explosions from artillery shells and roadside bombs.
Sources inform “Globes” that the Ministry of Defense has already decided in principle to upgrade 50 APCs, and that the IDF ground command and IMI were now negotiating the details of a contract. If the deal goes ahead, the IDF is expected to upgrade 500 of its 8,000 APCs.
Each APC upgrade costs an estimated $200,000, which means the entire program will cost $100 million. IMI intends to manufacture the armor components at Marvin Engineering in the US, so that the IDF can finance the upgrade from US military aid.
The initial contract to upgrade 50 APCs will cost an estimated $10 million. The IDF will subsequently invest $20 million a year to upgrade 100 APCs a year over five years.
After the armor components are manufactured in the US, they will be brought to Israel for installation on IDF M-113 Bardelass ("cheetah" in Hebrew) APCs, similar to those hit in the Gaza Strip in the past two days. Defense establishment sources said the M-113's armor should have prevented the explosives they were carrying inside from exploding, but that there was no guarantee, since tanks had also previously been destroyed by large roadside bombs planted by Palestinians.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on May 13, 2004