Turkish armored vehicle manufacturer Katmerciler announced last week that it has signed a $91.4 million contract with Kenya’s Defense Ministry to provide the African country with 118 4x4 Hizir tactical armored vehicles. The delivery is expected to begin in 2022 and run through the end of 2023.

The Overt Defense website said that the Hizir, which was designed with a capacity of nine personnel, has been optimized for high performance under intensive fighting situations in rural and urban regions, with a high level of mine and ballistic protection.

The Hizir can be configured as a command control vehicle, CBRN vehicle, weapon carrier vehicle (with easy integration of multiple weapon systems), ambulance, border security vehicle, or reconnaissance vehicle, the report said.

The Hizir is fitted with a Turkish-made Aselsan SARP turret. Depending on the operational requirements, the turret can be equipped with a 12.7mm machine gun, 40mm automatic grenade launcher or 7.62mm machine gun.

It has advanced capabilities and options such as fire-on-the-move capability, day and night imaging, automatic target tracking, a laser range finder for accurate ballistics, last round warning and manual backup, according to the website.

The Hizir has nine gun ports, four on each side and one on the rear door. The vehicle is also equipped with a smoke grenade launcher on its roof, the report said. Source: Israel Defence