EDEX 2025: Egypt Reveals ST-108 GPR Mine Detection Vehicle With Full-Width Ground Radar Array.

Amstone International Group introduced the ST-108 GPR at EDEX 2025 in Cairo, presenting a mine detection vehicle built on an armored MRAP chassis with a wide ground penetrating radar system. The design supports Egypt’s growing push for indigenous route clearance capabilities and could position the country as a regional supplier of counter-IED technology.

Amstone International Group rolled out its new ST-108 GPR mine detection vehicle during the opening day of EDEX 2025, describing it as a purpose-built platform for route clearance and counter IED missions. Company representatives and show materials highlighted the combination of a Four Wheel Drive MRAP base and a full-width radar array, a configuration intended to offer crews reliable detection of buried threats while operating at convoy speeds on damaged or contested road networks.
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Armored ST-108 GPR mine detection vehicle with forward ground-penetrating radar array for rapid detection of buried mines and IEDs while leading route clearance and convoy protection operations (Picture source: Army Recognition Group).

The ST-108 combines a Four Wheel Drive mine-resistant platform with a forward-mounted radar “blade” that spans roughly the width of the vehicle. The armoured cabin follows current MRAP practice, with steeply angled sides, thick ballistic glass, and roof-mounted escape hatches to protect engineers during blast events. The long travel suspension, high ground clearance, and heavy off-road tires show the vehicle is designed to work at convoy speeds on broken roads rather than crawl like a slow demining tractor, giving combat engineers a tool that can keep up with mechanized units.

The heart of the system is its high-precision ground-penetrating radar suite, presented on the marketing board as a rapid and reliable detector of buried threats. GPR systems transmit electromagnetic pulses into the soil and analyse reflected signals to distinguish anomalies such as anti-tank mines or deeply buried IED main charges, including low metal designs that defeat legacy metal detectors. Recent research and field trials, including Australian and US testing campaigns, have shown that vehicle-mounted GPR can significantly improve the probability of detection when coupled with advanced signal processing tuned to local soil conditions.

On ST-108, the radar panels are carried ahead of the vehicle on a rigid frame, reducing the risk that a missed device detonates directly under the crew compartment. A hydraulic boom above the cab appears to be used to deploy, recover, and position the array, allowing the crew to fold the system for transport or negotiate tight urban turns without leaving the protected cabin. The MRAP base offers blast deflection and energy management that are now standard on dedicated mine detection vehicles, while the company highlights “maximum crew protection and survivability” on its show materials, aligning the platform with NATO style route clearance standards.

The vehicle is clearly intended as the lead element in engineer route clearance packages, escorting logistics convoys, peacekeeping patrols, or UN humanitarian missions through mined road nets. In doctrine similar to that used with the South African-designed Husky VMMD and other vehicle-mounted mine detectors, ST-108 would search ahead for surface-laid and buried hazards, mark suspicious locations for follow-on explosive ordnance disposal teams, and verify previously cleared supply routes. Competing systems, such as the Husky 2G pair wide GPR arrays with modular, blast separable hulls and have demonstrated reliable detection of both metallic and non-metallic mines across a three-meter-wide swath. ST-108 appears to trade the Husky’s narrow single-seat cab and center drive layout for a broader MRAP cabin that can host additional operators, command systems, or a remote weapon station.

For Egypt, fielding a domestically branded mine detection vehicle would fill an obvious operational need: long-term counter IED operations in Sinai and enhanced protection of lines of communication supporting multinational exercises and coalition deployments. Internationally, the platform could appeal to African, Middle Eastern, and Asian armies that already operate MRAP fleets but lack dedicated route clearance vehicles, offering a relatively straightforward industrial package that pairs Amstone’s armored vehicle know-how with imported or locally licensed GPR sensors. Humanitarian demining agencies could also be a secondary market if a lighter, lower-cost configuration is developed without offensive armament, particularly for post-conflict road opening in countries where manual deminers still face heavy casualties.

If Amstone can demonstrate that ST-108’s radar performance matches the mature Husky Mounted Detection System and similar European GPR-based solutions while keeping acquisition and life cycle costs attractive, the vehicle would mark a meaningful step for Egypt’s private sector in moving from trading foreign systems to offering an indigenous, export-ready counter mine platform. The presence of the ST-108 at EDEX 2025 signals that mine detection and route clearance are becoming a central theme of Egypt’s land systems portfolio, with direct implications for coalition interoperability and regional stability.