KUALA LUMPUR, March 1 (Bernama) -- A sophisticated armoured car designed for the 21st century will be revealed to the public during the 80th Army Day anniversary celebration in Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan, Saturday.
A defence ministry spokesman said, the Turkey-designed armoured car was flown to Malaysia and currently placed at an army camp in Port Dickson.
"The armoured car is a prototype and it is here to undergo several weeks of terrain and weather tests," he told Bernama.
The eight-tyred armoured car uses Turkish technology and was known as 'Pars', but a factory would be put up locally to produce a local version known as 'AV8'.
Meanwhile, local defence blogger malaysiamilitarypower.blogspot.com Harsul Fariddi, when contacted, said the arrival of the 'AV8' had answered questions which all this while had gone unanswered.
"It was rumoured that the project had failed as it had never been shown in defence exhibitions such as the Langkawi International Maritime and Airshow 2011".
"Its presence was detected when photos at the rehearsal of the Army Day celebration in Port Dickson started to circulate, since two days ago," he said.
Based on the photograph he saw, he said, the 'AV8' to be exhibited Saturday would replace the 'Condor' and 'Sibmas'.
"I think more armour has been added, and in terms of equipment available, it is similar to the 'ACV300 Adnan', which is also Turkey-made," he said.
"It has active and passive defensive suite equipment, similar or better than 'ACV300 Adnan' and shares the same turrent with the 25mm Bushmaster cannon".
Malaysia invested RM8 billion, several years ago, with Turkey to develop 'AV8' with a first acquisition of 257 armoured cars of numerous variants.
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