After several years of hard work in developing, testing, and manufacturing, the Head of the Israel Ministry of Defense’s Tank and APC Directorate, Brig. General Oren Giber, announced that the IDF has introduced in service their first new eight-wheeled EITAN Armored Personnel Carrier (APC).

The first serial production vehicle has been delivered and assigned to the esteemed Israel’s NAHAL Infantry Brigade and, as Brig. General Giber confirmed the new ground platform has already participated in its first simulated combat exercise in northern Israel. In the last months, Israel’s Ministry of Defense staff has announced at multiple events its satisfaction with the new APC and how it is viewed as a significant step forward in ground combat.

The EITAN project was announced in 2016, however only in 2022 Israel selected US-based Oshkosh Defense to produce the hulls for the vehicle, thus the first serially produced vehicle was built in 2022 at the Merkava factory at Tel Hashomer. It can carry 12 soldiers and will be equipped with the IRON FIST active defense system. The main weapon systems of the vehicle variants have not officially been confirmed yet, however, the IDF is oriented to have the APC variant equipped with a remotely operated 12,7 mm machine gun, while the IFV one should be equipped with a remotely operated turret mounting 30/40mm automatic cannon. The EITAN has 750 hp and can reach speeds of 90 km/h, with a weight between 30 t and 35 t, a huge improvement in terms of performance and features compared to the M-113 and also the NAMER. Israel’s Ministry of Defense has highlighted what it called the vehicle’s superior mobility and survivability of the EITAN, based on the lesson learned from fighting Hamas in the Gaza Strip during Operation PROTECTIVE EDGE in 2014, where both the older M-113 and the heavy NAMER showed all their limits.

The EITAN partnership with Oshkosh is another success of Israeli partnerships and integrations of systems with the US company after Elbit Systems has equipped Oshkosh JLTVs for Montenegro, Rafael integration of Spike onto the Slovenian Oshkosh JLTV, and the delivery of Israel’s IRON DOME on Oshkosh trucks to the US.

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