Ukraine Army Showcase First US-Delivered M1117 Armored Vehicle

Defense News ,Ukraine War :- This week, the Ukrainian army showed off a new armored vehicle they got from the United States. It's called the M1117 Armored Security Vehicle.

The 425th Separate Assault Battalion Skala shared a picture of the Textron vehicle on their Instagram page. They were testing it out on a training ground.

This is part of a bigger deal announced on November 4, 2022. The deal is worth $400 million. Along with 45 fixed-up T-72B tanks and other military gear, they're getting 250 of these refurbished M1117s. The deal also includes 1,100 Phoenix Ghost drones and 40 Armored Riverine Boats.

But there's a problem. The delivery might be late because of issues with getting the equipment from the companies that make them.

According to Defense Express, they talked about fixing up the old vehicles in a meeting with US government people in September 2023. They said it will take about 18 more months to get all the vehicles ready. The US officials are trying to speed up the process.

Now, let's talk about the M1117. It's a big armored truck, kind of like a tank but not as heavy. It was made in the 1990s and first used in 1999. It's got some serious weapons on it, like a machine gun and a grenade launcher. There's another machine gun up top, too.

The US made about 2,000 of these vehicles. But in 2019, they decided to start using a different kind of truck, so they stopped making the M1117.