WELLINGTON, New Zealand - New Zealand Defense Force (NZDF) units took delivery of a first batch of Medium-Heavy Operational trucks just one year after an order for the vehicles was placed with Rheinmetall MAN Military Vehicles Australia (RMMVA). The deliveries included seven trucks apiece to 2 Combat Service Support Battalion in Linton and 3 Combat Service Support Battalion in Burnham.
New Zealand's purchase of Rheinmetall-MAN Medium-Heavy vehicles involves 200 new trucks costing around NZD113 million ($97 million). These new trucks will gradually replace the older Unimog and heavier Mercedes models currently in the NZDF inventory. Ten variants of the new trucks were ordered in three sizes: a 6-ton 4x4 model, a 9-ton 6x6 model and a 15-ton 8x8 model. The variants include dump trucks for combat engineers, trucks fitted with specialized pallet and container handling equipment, and tractor-trailer varieties used to transport heavy vehicles and equipment.
Deliveries for the entire Medium-Heavy truck order are to be completed by the year's end.
Source: New Zealand Ministry of Defense
Associated URL:
http://www.beehive.govt.nz/portfolio/defence