Marine Assault Vehicle (MAV) Makes First Appearance at IDEF’19

IDEF’19 will witness the unveiling of the MAV Marine Assault Vehicle, which has been greatly anticipated by the sector due to limited number of comparable vehicles in the same class, principally because of the challenging requirements and highly specialised mission definition associated with these vehicles.
Visitors to the FNSS stand will have opportunity to see the first prototype MAV, whose main role is to support the combat capabilities of marine forces in line with the requirements of the 21st century combat environments.MAV is being developed as part of the Armoured Amphibious Assault Vehicles (Zırhlı Amfibi Hücum Araçları, ZAHA) Project being conducted by the Presidency of Defence Industries (SSB) to meet a need of Turkish Naval Forces Command. Within the project, FNSS will deliver a total of 27 vehicles, including 23 personnel carriers, two command and control vehicles and two recovery vehicles.

In addition to enabling the safe landing of units during amphibious operations, the armoured amphibious assault vehicles also serve as armoured personnel carriers after reaching the shore. During the amphibious assault phase of an operation, these vehicles are launched from Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD) and rapidly cover the distance between the vessel and shore, allowing forces to land under protection and with minimum delay. Once on land, these vehicles can continue taking part in operations side-by-side with other armoured vehicles. As vehicles with a dual role due to their mission requirements, armoured amphibious assault vehicles need to exhibit superior performance both at sea and on land, and only a few countries around the world have such vehicles in their inventories. Among the NATO countries and allies, there is only one company other than FNSS producing vehicles of this class.