Spain arms Morocco with vehicles

[drg]

Here:

AS with my other post re Ethiopia, I would have to ask what armoured trucks and vehicles Morocco is getting for its dough?

 

[webmaster]

The link does not work. Please post the URL of the actual news article along with the article content (from newspaper, etc.) that talks about this topic.

 

[Gladius]

Well, I'm not see many info about this in "english sources" but this is a quote of an article published by "Think SPAIN" last February:

Moroccan military vehicle deal rises to €200 million

Think SPAIN
Tuesday, February 6, 2007.

Over the next few months the Moroccan army will start to take delivery of the 1,200 VAMTAC High Mobility Tactical Vehicles ordered last November to which has been added a supplementary order of 800 military lorries and 10 coastal patrol boats.

The order, which is now worth €200 million, returns Morocco to near the top of the list of Spanish military export customers after a marked decline in sales in 2004 and 2005 in the wake of the Perejil Island spat under the previous Aznar administration.

According to reports in today's El Pais, the VAMTACs are identical to those used by Spanish forces in Afghanistan, the lorries have been adapted either for carrying water or as ambulances, while the 17 metre patrol boats are the same as those used by the Guardia Civil to patrol Spain's coastal borders.

Obviously there are more sources about this in spanish language, some links bellow:

Article published by "20 Minutos" - Spanish Newspaper.
Article published by Belt Iberica S.A. - Spanish News Service

This deal would be a follow up of a previous contracts signed last year with some spanish firms like Urovesa (100 VAM-TL)

Resuming... These multiple contracts signed with spanish companies (Urovesa, Iveco, Rodman-Polyships, etc...) include the following things:

1.200 VAMTACs (Many configurations and with armored and unarmored versions).
800 Trucks (Also on many config. included Ambulance and Tanker)
10 Light Patrol Crafts (By the info published they would be the Rodman-55 design or similar).

When this deal was announced in Spain, the issue was raised in the Congress with a written question* included, about the position of the Spanish Government about all this, the concordance of this deal with the European Arms-Trade legislation and if would be any restrictions signed over use of this material by the Royal Moroccan Army against third parties. At this time the last question remains unanswered by the Zapatero's Government.

* Question: 184/109086 - Published in the Official Congress Bulletin (BOCG). Congreso de los Diputados, serie D, number 508, of 20/02/2007.

VAMTAC: Vehiculo de Alta Movilidad TACtica manufactured by Urovesa (Similar to the US HMWWV).
VAM-TL: Vehiculo de Alta Movilidad - Transporte Ligero (Called "Atlas" in Morocco). Lighter & smaller evolution of the VAMTAC, also manufactured by Urovesa, that loss the Spanish tender of the replacement for the Land Rovers, Nissan ML-6 & ML-4 in service with the Spanish Armed Forces. The winner was the Santana Anibal.