The army of Serbia and Montenegro (formerly Yugoslavia) is interested in having its armor and other battle vehicles upgraded in Israel.
Serbia and Montenegro Minister of Defense Boris Tadic recently held talks on the matter at Israel Military Industries (IMI). Tadic’s visit to Israel was designed to strengthen ties between Serbia-Montenegro and Israel.
Tadic met with IMI chairman Brig.-Gen. (Ret.) Arie Mizrachi and president and CEO Dr. Ehud Ganani, who said that IMI regarded Serbia as an important marketing target, and had decided to make an effort to create cooperation with it. Among other things, IMI views Serbia as a wedge for penetrating other Eastern European markets.
IMI can offer Serbia and Montenegro an option to upgrade old Russian-built tanks and armored fighting vehicles (AFVs), bringing them to the level of more advanced tanks with Western technology.
IMI is offering a unique protective envelope for armored personnel carriers (APCs), developed jointly with Rafael (Israel Armament Development Company). The upgrade provides survivability against a variety of munitions, and is lightweight, which preserves the APCs’ original mobility.
The protective envelope is designed to replace an APC with sandbags added to protect the crew. The envelope is made out of armored boards jointly developed at IMI’s Slavin plant with ballistics specialists from Rafael’s ordnance division, using hybrid armoring technology. The Slavin plant is IMI’s tank, AFV, and ammunition division.
The Tavor assault rifle was displayed to the delegation from Serbia and Montenegro. It was stressed that the Tavor is now being procured by the Israel Defense Forces as its future infantry rifle. The delegation viewed the rifle’s performance at a shooting range. IMI’s security capabilities were also displayed to the delegation.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on August 11, 2003