Indonesian Army has just received General Dynamics European Land Systems (GDELS) Pandur II Armored Fighting Vehicles and M3 Amphibious Bridge. The deliveries will include an ILS package consisting of a simulator system, training, special tools and manuals. On 24 November 2016 Indonesian government ordered an undisclosed number of Pandur II Armored Fighting Vehicles and M3 Amphibious Rigs for US$39 million from the Czechoslovak Group which has an agreement with General Dynamics to produce, maintain, and market these vehicles in Asia and Central and Eastern Europe. Contract for 22 another vehicles were signed in April 12th 2019.
On February 2015, under a deal with General Dynamics European Land Systems (GDELS), Czech company Excalibur Army manufactures the Pandur II wheeled armoured vehicle under license from GDELS-Steyr, which will provide design services and components for the vehicles. The Pandur II is a family of 6×6 and 8×8 light armoured vehicles designed and manufcatured by the Austrian company, Steyr-Daimler-Puch, now a subdivision of General Dynamics European Land Combat Systems. In 2019, the Indonesian Ministry of Defense issued PT Pindad in partnership with the Czechoslovak Group, a contract for the production of the Indonesian Army Pandur which will be manufactured locally as Pindad Cobra 8×8 Armored Fighting Vehicles. The integration works including the use of weapon systems from Brazilian-Israeli venture REMAX Land Systems and Belgium’s John Cockerill.
The M3 Amphibious Rig is a self-propelled amphibious bridging vehicle that is used for the projection of tanks and other vehicles across water obstacles. Originally developed by the German firm Eisenwerke Kaiserslautern (EWK, since 2002 acquired by General Dynamics European Land Systems), it succeeded the conceptually similar M2 made by the same company. The M3 is self-deployable by road, operating as a 4×4 wheeled vehicle with a maximum road speed of 80 km/h. It is driven into the water for amphibious operation, for which it deploys two large aluminium pontoons, unfolding them along the length of its hull. In water, the M3 is propelled and steered by 2 fully traversable pump jets at speeds of up to 14 km/h. 8 M3 Rigs will bridge a 100m water gap this way, and can be traversed by vehicles up to and including the heaviest 60+ ton main battle tank like the Indonesian Army Leopard 2A4 and Leopard 2RI.
