BAE Systems awarded two more B-vehicle orders

25 August 2011 by defenceWeb

BAE Systems has been awarded two further orders for the maintenance and repair for the South African National Defence Force's fleet of “B-vehicles”, defined as a “soft-skinned vehicle which is specially designed or modified for military use, or transformed for protection against mines.”

The orders are extensions of existing work. The first, worth R5 789 362, is for the depot level repair of transmissions, axles and transfer cases for B-vehicles, an extension of a R9.1million contract awarded this March. The second, for R38 950 000, is for depot level maintenance and repair. BAE System has been for many years the main contractor for the SAMIL range of South African military trucks that has been in service for over 30 years.

BAE Systems and its dealer network have received at least R766 333 291.48 since 2007 to maintain and support the venerable truck family. The Samil fleet at its peak numbered about 12 000 two-, five- and 10-ton load-capacity utility and specialised trucks and are widely used by all Services and divisions of the South African National Defence Force.

The SAMIL 100 family is a licensed local version of the Magirus Deutz 320D22AL 6x6 10-ton (load) truck. They were manufactured by Truckmakers, a Nissan subsidiary, in Rosslyn, Pretoria. Production of the Samil range ended in 1998. The SAMIL 50 is a dometic copy of the Magirus Deutz 192D12AL 4x4 5-ton (load) truck. The SAMIL 20 is a local version of the Magirus Deutz 130M7FAL 4x4 2-ton (load) truck, a somewhat top-heavy design.

It is not clear how long the SAMIL range will still soldier on – or how many remain in service. At peak, some 12 000 SAMILs were in service. A Request for Offers (RFO ESVT 2004/100) for a replacement was issued on May 21, 2004 under the designation Project Vistula, with the closing date of June 30, 2005. That acquisition was controversially run off the road on September 17, 2007, when Armscor announced it could not select a preferred bidder due to the complexity of the evaluation process.

“After careful evaluation of all the offers submitted to Armscor for evaluation and consideration, it was decided that no appointment of a preferred bidder be made as none of the bidders conformed to all the critical criteria as set out in the request for offer. … Armscor is in the process of obtaining the applicable authorisations to initiate a new RFO process in due course. This will be in the public domain as soon as Armscor is ready to commence with the new process.” Industry has been waiting ever since.

Even so, continued industry interest in the project was apparent at both the 2008 and 2010 editions of African Aerospace & Defence. Vendors at the latter included Rheinmetall MAN, Mercedes Benz South Africa, Leyland Ashok from India, the US Navistar, BMC from Turkey and Renault Trucks Defence of France. Shortly after AAD2010, BAE Systems Land Systems South Africa and Iveco Defence Vehicles signed a teaming agreement to pursue Vistula.

Land Warfare International in August last year reported Vistula could see the SANDF acquire “5000 trucks as a first step towards the replacement of the present Samil-100 and Samil-50 fleets.” According to a report by Helmoed-Römer Heitman current plans are for some 2000 8x8 trucks with armoured/mine-protected cabs; 1200 6x6 trucks, some of them with protected cabs; and 1800 4x4 trucks.

DefenseNews, the US defence news daily, reports Armscor is expected to put out a request for proposals (RfP) “in the next few months” for about 1200 trucks. It adds the order “could be worth around R3.2 billion for the winner.

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