The “Zastava TERVO” company from Kragujevac has unveiled its new M-20 6×6 armoured fighting vehicle during the visit of the Minister of Defence, Aleksandar Vulin, and the Chief of the General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces.
The new M-20 is designed for the safe transportation of units and it possesses a high level of ballistic and anti-mine protection. In addition, the possibility of opening fire from inside the vehicle puts it in the rank of the best solutions in this category in the world.
“This vehicle is a great step forward for us because it is able to transport our units safely and quickly and at the same time to protect them from various small infantry weapons’ fire, but also from various types of mines,” said Minister Vulin, also added that “there are few countries in the world that are able to construct a vehicle like this, there are about ten of them.”
According to him, it is a big thing for the armed forces to be able to equip and arm themselves with domestic equipment, produced with domestic knowledge and intellect.
“These armed forces are simply not the same anymore. Things are changing for the better. Thanks to the great trust and personal contribution of the Supreme Commander Aleksandar Vučić, the ability to provide significant funds, Serbia is much stronger economically, but it is also more responsible towards itself and its armed forces. These are armed forces that will be able to deal with any other country, that are able to protect all their soldiers, to make them feel safe and secure,” said the Minister of Defenіe.
The M-20 6×6 vehicle is a key factor for ensuring protected mobility of the Serbian Armed Forces’ Infantry, and its implementation is envisaged through two families of wheeled armoured fighting vehicles of domestic production.
“The first family is already known, these are “Lazar” and “Miloš” vehicles that are based on automotive components with independent suspension produced by world’s top manufacturers and they are in the class of combat vehicles that are generally used in the Western European armed forces. The second family is based on reliable, robust automotive components produced by our FAP. These are 6×6 vehicles like this one, and 4×4 vehicles. It is a very high quality dependent suspension system produced by FAP, under the Mercedes licence, and the rest of the components are also of top quality,” Assistant Minister for Material Resources, Nenad Miloradović explained, adding that equipping the armed forces with vehicles from the second family costs significantly less, and that a much larger number of vehicles can be produced in the same time frame and with the same funds.
