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Győr (western Hungary) has once again been put on the increasingly detailed map of the Hungarian military industry with the production of Gidrán armored combat vehicles for the Hungarian Defense Forces by the renowned Hungarian automotive manufacturer Rába, together with Turkish company Nurol Makina.
Representatives of the Turkish defense company Nurol Makina and its Hungarian subsidiary, N7 National Defense Industry Innovation Holding Zrt., along with Rába Automotive Holding Nyrt., signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Tuesday at the Ministry of Defense for the production of armored off-road combat vehicles in Hungary, an important area for the further development of the Hungarian defense industry.
The vehicle’s original Turkish name is Ejder, meaning dragon, but the Hungarian Defense Forces named it after a Hungarian horse breed with a very significant historical background, the Gidrán. Photo via honvedelem.hu.
The Hungarian Defense Forces have so far ordered a total of fifty of the Gidrán combat vehicles included in the agreement, however based on earlier reports, several hundred more may be delivered to the troops.
The production of these combat vehicles will take place in Győr, where the Turkish-Hungarian military cooperation will create 200 new jobs and involve a wide network of suppliers.
The final assembly of the Gidrán combat vehicle is already taking place in Hungary, with the additional radar and weapon systems being integrated in Kaposvár (southwestern Hungary) on the base vehicle manufactured by Nurol Makina. This activity will remain in Kaposvár.
As Magyar Nemzet reports, over the past six years, one of Europe’s most ambitious weapons production programs has grown from almost nothing in Hungary.
Photo via honvedelem.hu.
In August, the Rheinmetall Hungary Zrt. plant in Zalaegerszeg (western Hungary) was inaugurated, where the primary focus is on the development and production of tracked vehicles for the Hungarian military, primarily the Lynx armored fighting vehicle. The new generation of combat vehicles, known as the KF51 Panther, will also be developed and later produced here. At the ceremony, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced the establishment of a joint venture in Hungary to produce combat drones.
The plant would initially produce the Israeli-developed HERO kamikaze drones.
Also recently in September, a ground-breaking ceremony was held for the Defense Industrial Park in Várpalota (western Hungary), a 400-hectare site that will be used for the production of medium and large caliber ammunition and explosives. The Hungarian state, together with Rheinmetall AG, will create between 1,000 and 1,200 new jobs with the project, worth more than HUF 300 billion (EUR 782 million), setting up one of the largest ammunition factories in Europe.
Handguns for Hungarian soldiers are also made at a Hungarian plant in Kiskunfélegyháza (cental Hungary). The factory produces under license pistols, submachine guns, and machine guns of the Czech CZ and the legendary American Colt CZ, now Czech-owned. It will also manufacture products of the German-Israeli company DND under a contract between Dynamit Nobel Defense GmbH (DND) and the state-owned N7 Holding Zrt.
At the end of September last year, it was announced that HSC Aerojet Zrt., holding an 80 percent stake in the Czech aircraft manufacturer Aero Vodochody, had been taken over by the Hungarian state.
The Hungarian Defense Forces will purchase L-39NG military trainer aircraft from the Czech-Hungarian company.
The government is also exploring the possibility of developing and manufacturing radio and satellite communication systems with a base near Gödöllő (near Budapest), where several Hungarian companies are well positioned in this field.
Via Magyar Nemzet, MTI, Featured image via honvedelem.hu
