Army and NZDF set to welcome new workhorse utility vehicle

In a signing ceremony at Defence House on Wednesday, Secretary of Defence Brook Barrington finalised a contract with Spanish military vehicle manufacturer UROVESA – the first time the NZDF has engaged in a significant procurement from Spain in the Land Domain. 

It is the latest stage of the Protected Mobility Capability Project (PMCP), which has already seen the NZ Army acquire new operational vehicles in the form of the Bushmaster and Polaris fleets. 

The delivery of the first 60 utility vehicles will bring40 VAMTAC CK3 medium and 20 VAMTAC ST5 light variants for operational roles. 

It follows Government approval of the first tranche of a Ministry of Defence-led project, which received $100 million in funding as part of Budget 24.

Tranche one covers the purchase of the vehicles, spare parts, computing and communications equipment, support equipment, project costs, and introduction into service costs.   

Chief of Army Major General Rose King, who was the official witness to Wednesday’s contract signing, said the new vehicles represent a significant improvement in Army’s capabilities, and will provide soldiers with a robust and versatile vehicle for combat, disaster relief, and general training scenarios.

“Both the Unimog and Pinzgauer vehicles have served Ngāti Tūmatauenga well over the years – they have rightly been described as Army’s workhorses - but their retirement from service is overdue. And so, it is with great excitement that we will see the start of the replacement of these essential platforms,” said Major General King.

“These new vehicles will make our people safer, their jobs easier and improve our effectiveness across a variety of scenarios, and I can’t wait to see them up and running here in Aotearoa.”

PMCP Capability Integration Lead Lieutenant Colonel Brendon Jones said this new fleet will not only provide Army with a more reliable and modern alternative to the current vehicles, but it sets the NZDF up well for the future.

We’re incredibly excited that we’re one step closer to having these vehicles in our possession and I know our soldiers will be itching to get these out onto our training areas and putting them through their paces.

“These vehicles are well equipped for not only our terrain here in New Zealand, but also the operational environments we deploy to – they have great carrying capacity, have rollover protection and the medium variant can wade through water depths up to 1.5m, which is an upgrade on the current Unimog’s 1.2m. They also have an internally operated tyre inflation system, which can adjust tyre pressures depending on the difficult or soft terrain. Those attributes will be invaluable for us for domestic and regional civil emergency responses,” said Lieutenant Colonel Jones. 

The first tranche of vehicles will replace around 25% of the Army’s current fleet of Pinzgauers and Unimogs that are assigned to specific operational units, and they will all be equipped with Network Enabled Army compliant communications systems and equipment.

Deputy Secretary of Defence (Capability Delivery) Sarah Minson says the utility vehicles are a critical fleet for Defence. 

“The operational utility vehicle fleet has long-been the backbone of NZDF land operations, deployed to transport personnel and critical equipment during stability and security operations, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions, and search and rescue deployments,” Sarah Minson said.

They will also provide interoperability with our partners and have a proven track record, with more than 20 countries around the world using them including Singapore, as well as Spain and a number of other NATO nations.

The existing operational utility vehicle fleet has provided the NZDF with critical transportation capabilities for close to 40 years. Vehicles were recently deployed to the Solomon Islands to support the regionally-led Solomon Islands Assistance Force, following civil unrest. They were also deployed following Cyclone Gabrielle, to transport supplies to areas that other vehicles could not access.

Vehicle specifications

VAMTAC ST5 – Utility Vehicle Light, General Variant 

VAMTAC CK3 – Utility Vehicle Medium, General Variant