DOPPELADLER.COM

#Latvia has now downselected four vehicles for its 4x4 tactical vehicle requirement: Otokar Cobra 🇹🇷; Oy Sisu GTP 🇫🇮; AM General Humvee 🇺🇸; and Paramount Group Marauder 🇿🇦

Curious mix of vehicles and even more notable is the lack of JLTV, initially downselected.

• https://www.flickr.com/photos/latvijas_ ... 8376882901

• Financing of the United Nations Peacekeeping Forces in the Middle East : United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon : Report of the Secretary-General
  

  9. The concept of operation has through the years evolved from one of static deployment to a concept heavily reliant on mobile operation. Instead of concentrating at remote checkpoints or isolated observation posts, UNIFIL, in order to preform its tasks more effectively, is now conducting more mobile patrols and setting up temporary checkpoints and temporary observation posts. By increasing its presence by vigorous and visible patrolling, UNIFIL is doing its best to prevent its area of deployment from being used for hostile activities and to defuse situations that could lead to escalation. This means an unavoidable dependence on military-pattern vehicles and in particular armoured personnel carriers. In fact, armoured personnel carriers are the only vehicles for conducting temporary checkpoints and temporary observation posts because they can deploy without much regard to the ongoing military activity. Armoured personnel carriers are also required for protection of the local population, which has become one of the important tasks of UNIFIL. In particular, in prolonged shelling operations, UNIFIL will be put under heavy demand for humanitarian assistance. Under dangerous conditions, however, the assistance can be extended only by the help of armoured personnel carriers. These are the reasons for the requirements of a strong mobile capacity as indicated in the current budget proposals.

  5. Transport operations
  
  Purchase of vehicles
  

  • Armoured vehicles

  http://repository.un.org/handle/11176/178098
  • http://repository.un.org/bitstream/hand ... sAllowed=y

• 12 March 1996
  FINANCING OF THE UNITED NATIONS PEACE-KEEPING FORCES
  IN THE MIDDLE EAST
  
  United Nations Disengagement Observer Force
  
  United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon
  
  Report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative
  and Budgetary Questions
  

  II. UNITED NATIONS INTERIM FORCE IN LEBANON
  
  [...]
  
  30. Provision is made in annex II to document A/50/543/Add.1, of $1.8 million for the refurbishment of armoured personnel carriers. Upon inquiry, the Advisory Committee was informed that the repair involved 15 armoured personnel carriers. The Advisory Committee was also informed that the base unit price for a new armoured personnel carrier was $350,000 for a SISU type and $400,000 for a VAB type. In this connection, the Advisory Committee requests that the Secretariat consider the possibility of leasing the armoured personnel carriers, using the new procedures in contingent-owned equipment.

  https://unispal.un.org/DPA/DPR/unispal. ... enDocument

• Internal Audit Division
  REPORT 2017/148
  
  Audit of budget formulation and monitoring in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon
  

  • The Mission redeployed $500,000 to purchase five armoured vehicles. The Mission's budget proposal mentioned high cost of maintenance but did not indicate that the vehicles had lost their armoured capability and were therefore not serving their purposes.

  https://oios.un.org/page/download/id/787
  

  13. Paragraph 8.2 of the STM calls for standardizing the vehicle fleet and minimizing the number of makes and models. UNIFIL's vehicle fleet consisted of more than 30 makes and 70 models of heavy and light vehicles and spare parts
  valued at more than $6 million. The Mission explained that procurement actions are taken by UNHQ for all missions and that standardization of vehicles for individual missionsi s not addressed. This resulted in the Mission accumulatinq
  different makes and models of vehicles.

  https://usun.state.gov/sites/default/fi ... 140754.pdf

The Latvian Ministry of Defence (MoD) has been ordered to halt the EUR200 million (USD228 million) procurement of the Finnish-built Sisu Auto GTP for its long-running 4×4 tactical vehicle requirement following formal protests by two contractors in December 2018.

Latvia’s Procurement Monitoring Bureau, which oversees government procurement for the Ministry of Finance, issued a detailed 31-page report on 16 January that effectively prohibited the MoD from concluding an agreement with Sisu Auto, citing “irregularities” in the tender process.

According to the bureau’s decision, the MoD’s procurement committee now has three months “to eliminate the irregularities” identified in its reassessment of the negotiated procedure.

In 2018, Latvia’s Ministry of Defence awarded to Finland’s Sisu Auto a €181 million (U.S. $197 million) deal for four-wheel drive armored vehicles. But the contract was overturned in early 2019 by a government watchdog after two bidders — AM General from the United States, and South Africa’s Paramount Group — filed complaints over the process. Turkish firm Otokar had also bid on the program at the time.

The recompete has seen offers from more than 10 companies for what will be a government-to-government agreement for a final contract. The price for the new contract will depend on the eventual winner and is not locked in at the Sisu contract level.

Speaking to Defense News in September, Janis Garisons, state secretary for the MoD, said it’s unlikely the government will reach a decision on the winner of the competition in the short term.

“What we have to do, we will test the vehicles, because we want to ensure we are looking at vehicles fit for our terrain, that can drive into our forests and we are not [getting] stuck on the roads,” said Garisons, who is the No. 2 official at the ministry. “We will look also at the industrial part because we very much interested to have [the] ability to maintain those vehicles.”

The last point is key, as Latvia is concerned about the ability to maintain its new purchases, something the country has struggled with, according to Garisons. “We don’t want to be in that situation anymore.”

Defense Ministry spokesman Roberts Skraucs explained to LETA that the decision to temporarily suspend the procurement of 4x4 light and medium tactical vehicles was made in order to concentrate financial and administrative resources on the implementation of the 6x6 armored vehicle project together with allies.

"Such a decision does not mean that 4x4 armored vehicles will not be needed by the National Armed Forces in the future - such vehicles can also be equipped with adequate armaments, ensuring the performance of relevant operational tasks," Skraucs pointed out.