The Bronco ATTC – soon to be on Arctic ice?
Singapore’s ST Kinetics unveiled the new prototype of its Bronco all-terrain tracked carrier (ATTC) at this year’s Eurosatory, a biannual defense trade conference held in Paris. Dubbed the Bronco Fire Support Vehicle (FSV), it has greater firepower than previous models. ST Kinetics, the land systems and specialty vehicles branch of ST Engineering, is trying to sell the Bronco ATTC to the Arctic countries of Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Finland, and Sweden. ST Kinetics already has strong ties with the Finnish army, to whom it has sold 40mm High Velocity, High-Explosive Dual Purpose ammunition for automatic grenade launchers for the past decade. Currently, the Bronco ATTC is used by Singapore’s army and by the British army in Afghanistan.
On the market, the Bronco ATTC mainly competes with Swedish defense company BAE Systems AB’s BV line of vehicles, namely the BvS-10. Both can operate over a wide range of terrain, from the dense jungle to the barren tundra. The BvS-10, however, has a smaller payload than the new FSV, which is over five tons. The new competition posed by Bronco ATTC could mean that Sweden might soon be purchasing its Arctic defense vehicles from a tropical country.
The president of ST Kinetics, Sew Chee Jhuen, stated,
“The new Bronco FSV, with its world’s first dual RCWS design, is able to provide outstanding fire support to improve warfighters’ lethality, while ensuring survivability, leading to mission success. The Bronco FSV is yet another testimony of ST Kinetics’ commitment towards continual innovation to enhance the warfighter’s effectiveness.”
News links
“Singapore seeks Arctic sales for Bronco,” DefenseNews
“ST Kinetics unveils new Bronco variant prototype at Eurosatory 2010,” Shephard
