France orders 250 more Iveco PPT trucks - janes.com, 09.02.2014
France's defence procurement agency (DGA) has ordered 250 additional Iveco Porteur Polyvalent Terrestre (PPT) military trucks, it announced on 6 February.
The PPT, based on purpose-designed 8x8 Iveco tactical chassis, is replacing the French Army's ageing fleet of Renault Trucks Defence 6x6 Véhicule de Transport Logistique (VTL) and 6x6 TRM 10000 trucks.
Iveco is part of a consortium for the PPT programme led by French firm Soframe (part of the Lohr group), which is in charge of the integration of specific equipment to meet French requirements: logistic trays, cranes, recovery, and loading systems.
Soframe and Iveco won their first contract from France's PPT programme in December 2010 with a DGA order for 200 vehicles. The first vehicles were delivered in June 2013 and quickly saw service in Mali. So far, 80 PPTs have been delivered.
This second order for 250 PPTs, placed on 24 January, was included within the French defence programming act (LPM), which set out a requirement for 450 vehicles delivered by 2019. The French Army's requirement totals about 1,600 PPTs, with the remainder to be ordered in the next LPM session (post-2019).
The PPT's requirements have been updated following the older French Army trucks' experience in Afghanistan, where logistics vehicles were often targeted. In addition to strong mobility, range (1,200 km), and payload (37 tonnes), the PPT now provides improved levels of protection and can be armed with a MAG 58 7.62 machine gun.
The PPT is offered in two variants: Porteur Polyvalent Logistique (PPLOG) for freight transport, featuring a three-man crew and an automatic loading system, with a capacity of 19 tonnes; and the Porteur Polyvalent Lourd de Dépannage (PPLD) vehicle recovery version, with a four-man crew, which can support the bulk of the French Army's vehicles, including the Nexter VBCI 8x8 infantry fighting vehicle.
The first batch consisted of 150 PPLOG and 50 PPLD PPTs. This second batch includes just the PPLOG variant, with an unprotected cabin.