Krauss-Maffei Wegmann GmbH & Co KG (KMW) has been commissioned by the German Ministry of Defence to supply ten brand new FENNEK reconnaissance vehicles to the Joint Fire Support Teams (JFST) of the Armed Forces, resulting in a 31.3 million Euro deal for KMW. FENNEK Joint Foire Support Team The Joint Fire Support Teams coordinate indirect fire from the army, the air force and the navy, The FENNEK, with its low height and a minimised infrared and radar signature comes fully equipped with top-of-the-range reconnaissance systems. From an operational, economical and time management point of view, the FENNEK is most qualified as it is specifically designed to meet the armed forces’ requirements and demands, now and in the future. A FENNEK vehicle is a defence system that is capable of undertaking the most demanding tasks in international conflict management. Proof of its ingenuity is the fact that FENNEK vehicles were deployed as artillery observer vehicles by the ISAF peacekeeping forces in Afghanistan in 2004.
30 November 2007

Special Forces assault the Peninsula Hotel in Makati City, metro Manila against Renegade Philippine soldiers, November 29, 2007. Renegade Philippine soldiers said on Thursday they would leave a Manila hotel after elite forces battered down the door and fired tear gas into the lobby.
29 November 2007

Navistar subsidiary International Military and Government LLC (IMG) in, Warrenville, IL has now won almost $1.05 billion in contracts to date under the MRAP program. As previous DID MRAP articles have noted, CAT I MRAP-MRUV vehicles are patrol vehicles that can carry 6 passengers including the driver and front seat, as opposed to the larger CAT II MRAP-JERRV ‘squad’ vehicles which can carry extra cargo or fit a minimum of 10 passengers. The MRUV role is similar to a Hummer’s, albeit with more carrying capacity and much more protection. That has become a staple for IMG’s entry, recently dubbed the “MaxxPro” by its manufacturer. Their collaboration with an Israeli firm who provides up-armored vehicles for the Marines appears to have overcome lukewarm initial interest, and is being ordered in quantity; but even successful survivors of Aberdeen’s tests may not offer enough protection against the class of land mines now seeing wider use in Iraq. Nevertheless, the MRAP program has become a production race – and Navistar is doing very well under those competitive terms; a July 2007 order vaulted them into 1st place for number of MRAP vehicles ordered, and they have kept that position since.
29 November 2007

President Pervez Musharraf (L) talks with newly-appointed army chief General Ashfaq Kiyani during the change of command ceremony in Rawalpindi, 28 November 2007. Musharraf stepped down as army chief amid pomp and ceremony, finally bowing to international demands to end eight years of divisive military rule.
29 November 2007

A Chadian army vehicle destroyed during a battle with rebels in Abou Goulem, 90 kms (55 miles) east of the regional capital Abeche. Chad's intelligence chief on Tuesday accused Sudan of arming rebels who clashed with the army as troops showed off the battleground with bodies still laid among smouldering military vehicles.
27 November 2007

Czech military intelligence service (VZ) director Ondrej Palenik on Tuesday signed a CKr 135 million ($7.5 million) contract with the MPI Group on Nov 20/07 for 4 Dingo-2 vehicles, to be delivered by the end of February 2008. The VZ reportedly solicited 6-8 companies, before narrowing down to 2 finalists under an urgent selection procedure. The Czechs become the Dingo-2's 4th customer, after Germany, Austria, and Belgium. The newspaper adds that the defense ministry is also preparing a draft contract on the CKr 100 million ($5.6 million) purchase of 4 Iveco MLVs, which are to be used by the Czech military police's special unit operating in the southern Afghan province of Helmand. These 8 blast-resistant vehicles will meet only the most urgent needs, however, and a public tendering process will be launched for "tens of light APCs" to join the 199 wheeled Pandur II APCs and T-72M4 CZ tanks in the modernized Czech military.
26 November 2007

Lebanese soldiers sit on top of armoured personnel carriers near the parliament in downtown Beirut November 23, 2007. Lebanon's turmoil worsened on Friday with rival political camps failing to find a consensus that would allow parliament to choose a new head of state before pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud's term expires at midnight.
23 November 2007

Bolivia's President Evo Morales (C) waves from a light tank AMX-13 during a Calama army barrack anniversary in Patacamaya, 100 km (62 miles) from La Paz, November 23, 2007. Picture taken November 23, 2007.
23 November 2007

A U.S. armored vehicle (front) that was damaged in a roadside bomb attack remains on a road in Baladyat district in Baghdad November 11, 2007.
11 November 2007

A Syrian soldier mans a position along the border with Iraq on Saturday, Nov. 10, 2007. The Syrian government took a group of twenty-nine diplomats, including U.S. military attache Robert Michelson and journalists on a tour of its border with Iraq, aiming to dispel claims it is not doing enough to control the border.
10 November 2007

The German Bundestag's budget committee cleared the way today for the procurement of 405 new PUMA infantry fighting vehicles for the Bundeswehr.For Munich-based *Krauss-Maffei Wegmann GmbH & Co. KG *and Rheinmetall AG of Duesseldorf, the order represents a combined total of some € 3 billion in gross sales.Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and Rheinmetall each hold a 50 percent stake in the company tasked with the project,PSM GmbH of Kassel. Both hailed the decision as a crucial step in reequipping the German Army for the future as well as being vitally important to the German defence industry.
10 November 2007

A Cougar 4x4 wheeled armoured vehicle Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) Classification One vehicle demonstrates its off-road abilities in a water puddle at the U.S. Army's Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Aberdeen, Maryland, August 24, 2007. Monthly production of new armored vehicles designed to protect U.S. troops from roadside bombs should reach over 1,000 by year's end, and more than 1,500 should have arrived in Iraq, Pentagon officials told lawmakers on Thursday.
08 November 2007

An Israeli tank Merkava IV rolls into Israel after a military operation in the Gaza Strip, near the village of Netiv Haasara, just outside the northern Gaza Strip November 8, 2007. Israeli soldiers leave the Gaza Strip after a day-long operation on the Israeli side of the border near Kibbutz Kissufim, Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2007. Israel's Supreme Court on Wednesday delayed for at least a week a government plan to cut back on electricity to the Gaza Strip after appeals from 10 human rights organizations. Israeli soldiers fire tear gas towards Palestinian stone throwers during a military operation in the Balata refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus November 7, 2007.
08 Novemberl 2007

Members of the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) stand in front of an armoured personnel carrier (APC) at a firing range approximately 20 km (12 miles) outside El Fasher, the administrative capital of north Darfur, November 8, 2007. Newly arrived troops from two extra battalions of Rwandan and Nigerian soldiers have recently arrived in Sudan's war-torn western region to boost the already 7,000 personnel on the ground ahead of a planned handover from AMIS to a joint African Union-United Nations Mission known as UNAMID consisting of 26,000 personnel at the end of 2007. The troops were undertaking weapons training as part of an APC training course before their deployment to mission groups sites across Darfur.
08 Novemberl 2007