The Ukrainian Armor, a privately-held company specializing in designing and manufacturing modern armored vehicles and weapons, has developed a new unarmoured off-road vehicle to replace the legendary Soviet-era UAZ-496 jeep.
Mil.in.ua reported on 30 August that the Ukrainian Armor unveiled its new 4×4 light tactical vehicle developed for experimental design work “Saigak” – as a replacement for the UAZ-496 utility vehicle in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The new vehicle is a militarized SUV. It is a rebadged version of the Toyota Hilux utility vehicle.
The new vehicle was developed in record time within the framework of the competition announced by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, and was supposed to be submitted by September 1, 2021.
Earlier this year, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has issued a Request for Proposals for a competition to develop a new off-road light utility vehicle to replace the aging fleet of UAZ-469 vehicles in Ukrainian Armed Forces service.
“The prototypes must conform to requirements in terms of robustness, reliability, power output, fuel efficiency, load capacity, ease of maintenance and repair. The vehicle must ensure that tasks are accomplished in all terrains or climates. The utility vehicle that will be most acceptable in terms of physical and performance characteristics will be selected based on the results of official qualification trials,” Minister of Defense, Andrii Taran said while announcing the request.
