Escribano Mechanical & Engineering has announced that the company has successfully integrated the first four GUARDIAN Remote Weapon Systems (RWS) onto the 4×4 armoured vehicles from Bulgarian manufacturer Samel-90 for the Bulgarian Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). In the coming months eight more GUARDIAN RWS are to be integrated.
According to a news release by the Bulgarian Ministry of Defence, 98 such vehicles in ten different variants are on order, of which the first batch of 45 for the JSOC have been received. The contact was awarded to Samel-90 in December 2020. The Bulgarian company, in the scope of a joint venture, is supported by the UAE-based International Armoured Group, which has the design authority for the vehicles.
The GUARDIAN RWS has been laid out for short- and medium-range defence, features a new stabilised system and integrates electro-optical systems from EM&E for detection, recognition and identification of targets, Escribano writes in a press release.
JH