Supacat has announced that the fleet of Special Operations Vehicles – Mobility Heavy (SOV-MH), first ordered in September 2016, has been accepted by the New Zealand Ministry of Defence. The fleet goes into service with the NZDF early this year.
The new SOV-MH vehicles are based on the latest MkII version of Supacat’s HMT Extenda and provide a high level of commonality with the equivalent vehicles with other Special Forces, including those of Australia. NZ is a new customer for Supacat and the latest defence force to join the HMT family.
Designed for, and used by, the world’s elite Special Forces, the HMT Extenda is unique in being convertible to either a 4×4 or 6×6 configuration to meet different operational requirements. Its open architecture provides for various levels of protection and great variety in the roles and missions for which it can be configured.
“We are very pleased to have achieved our first product export from the Australian office,” managing director Asia Pacific Michael Halloran said. “It is a great credit to the Supacat Team Australia members that we have delivered this fleet on time and to budget.”
The SOV-MH vehicles were manufactured at Supacat’s existing assembly facilities in Australia using Supacat Team Australia members to manufacture and assemble the vehicle. This represents the first time that Supacat Team Australia members have exported completed vehicles and complements the opportunities already emerging for Australian suppliers to enter Supacat’s global supply chains.
In 2014 Australia awarded a $105 million contract to Supacat to deliver 89 Special Operations Vehicles – Commando (SOV-Cdo) for the ADF under the JP2097 Ph 1B (REDFIN) program. They were also based on the MkII HMT Extenda vehicle.