Turkish wheeled armoured vehicle manufacturer Nurol Makina took to the UK’s Millbrook Proving Ground on 19 September 2023 to demonstrate its Ejder Yalcin and NMS-L 4×4s to selected British Army officers associated with the service’s future tactical wheeled vehicle plans.
Emre Akin, Nurol Makina’s strategic planning and market development director, told his audience at Millbrook that the guiding philosophy behind the development of the Ejder Yalcin was to combine the protection qualities of a mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicle (MRAP) with mobility capabilities not usually associated with such a vehicle.
The 18-tonne Ejder Yalcin, which can carry a crew of two plus seven troops, consequently features mine and improvised explosive device (IED) protection to NATO STANAG Level 4a/2b, a V-shaped hull and wall-mounted seats with shock protection. However, it also delivers a high degree of mobility: a maximum road speed of 120 km/h, a 1.1 m fording capability, 1.1 m trench-crossing capability, a 0.5 m obstacle-climbing capability and the ability to negotiate gradients of 60% and side slopes of 30%.
Powered by a Cummins 8.9-litre, six-cylinder diesel engine delivering 375 HP and a torque rate of 1,550 Nm, the Ejder Yalcin has an Allison automatic transmission with six forward and one reverse gears and features a two-speed transfer case with continuous four-wheel drive and locking central differential.
Nurol Makina sees the Ejder Yalcin as applicable to high-intensity conflict scenarios as well as lower-intensity conflicts, so although the vehicle can accommodate remote or manual weapon stations armed with 12.7 mm and 7.62 mm machine guns, the vehicle has also been trialled with 25 mm and 30 mm autocannons.
The Ejder Yalcin is now quite a mature vehicle, given that its concept design dates back to 2012. It is now in service with the armed forces of 11 countries, is combat proven in theatres such as the Turkey/Syria border and in Mali, while the total Ejder Yalcin fleet worldwide of more than 1,000 vehicles has clocked up 15 million kilometres. With lessons learned from its in-theatre service, the vehicle has now been in its Block 4 iteration since 2022.
The more recently developed 14-tonne NMS-L, meanwhile, is a lighter, heli-transportable version of Nurol Makina’s NMS 4×4 that carries a crew of five. Mine and IED protected to NATO STANAG Level 3a/2b, the NMS-L has a maximum road speed of 150 km/h, a 0.9 m fording capability, 0.9 m trench-crossing capability, a 0.5 m obstacle-climbing capability and the ability to negotiate gradients of 70% and side slopes of 40%. The vehicle is powered by a 6.7-litre turbo-charged diesel engine developing 300/350 HP with a torque rate of 950 Nm and, like the Ejder Yalcin, has an Allison automatic transmission with six forward and one reverse gears and features a two-speed transfer case with continuous four-wheel drive and locking central differential.
The NMS-L would typically be armed with a remote or manual weapon station featuring a 12.7 mm or 7.62 mm machine gun.
Nurol Makina currently has NMS-L contracts from five different customers.
Both vehicles are fully conditioned to operate in temperatures from -32 to +55 °C and feature a fully independent suspension system, central type inflation system, run-flat tyres, and are protected by smoke grenade launchers and an automatic fire suppression system.
As the British Army considers its future tactical wheeled vehicle requirements, which include the General Support Utility Platform requirement to replace its Land Rover and similar platforms and the Protected Mobility Pipeline requirement to provide a wide range of protected mobility solutions, Nurol Makina’s many variants in its 4×4 ranges should stand it in good stead. The Ejder Yalcin, for example, has variants that include a mortar vehicle, surveillance and reconnaissance vehicle, armoured combat vehicle, armoured recovery and engineering vehicle, anti-tank missile vehicle and ambulance, while the NMS-L variants include a mortar vehicle, border surveillance and security vehicle, air defence vehicle and medical evacuation vehicle as well as various iterations of combat vehicle.
A British Army officer observing the Nurol Makina demonstration at Millbrook on 19 September told ESD that, moving forward, the army would be looking for “fewer core platforms but greater variants … replacing by role rather than by platform”.
Nurol Makina this year established a UK subsidiary, Nurol Makina UK, which is soon to take up residence at an office in Birmingham, at the heart of the UK’s automotive industry. Just down the road from this location, in Coventry, is the UK arm of NP Aerospace, with whom Nurol Makina entered a teaming agreement in July 2023 to further develop its vehicles for the UK market. NP Aerospace, which in 2019 won a UK Ministry of Defence contract to be the engineering authority for the British Army’s Protected Mobility Fleet programme, will be working with Nurol Makina to produce a fully UK-assembled Ejder Yalcin in time for demonstration at the Defence Vehicle Dynamics event at Millbrook in September 2024.
Nurol Makina’s Akin noted to ESD at Millbrook that the Ejder Yalcin is already built with around 22% UK components. He said this could rise to 40-50% with no design changes or 60% or more with minor design changes.
Peter Felstead
