Plasan Sasa ‘Making Money Out of Troubles’
09 March 2005 12:49
While presentations on the gravity, challenges and lessons of low-intensity conflict (LIC) continued next door at a conference here, companies like Israel’s Plasan Sasa demonstrated their products, showing from the commercial side that firms fast to respond with good solutions can turn the troubles of LIC and the war on terror into golden opportunities.
“We are working around the clock to satisfy current orders,” Dani Ziv, Plasan’s CEO, told Defense Daily yesterday. “We have been receiving hard pressure from our customers to deliver early.”
The customers in this case are the U.S. Marine Corps and Army, which have contracted with Plasan for large quantities of vehicle light Armor Protection Kits (APK) and add-on armor, the company’s specialty.
Plasan Sasa won a $100 million Pentagon competition as a subcontractor for Armor Holdings to mount its advanced APK on 920 Marine Corps Oshkosh [OSK] Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacements (MTVR) (Defense Daily, Oct. 13).
Plasan yesterday unveiled the APK for the MTVR at the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) second annual LIC conference and defense exhibition.
“The contract is to provide kits for 920 MTVR cabs and 460 troop carrier compartments,” Ziv said. “These are giving very good protection against landmines, improvised explosive devices (IED) and small arms.”
Plasan designed both the composite material armor protection itself and the rear troop carrier to comply with the highest technological demands of the customer, Ziv said.
Though he declined to specify the exact level of protection, he said it is a “quite advanced armor system that really gives the answer for current threats the Marine Corps is facing” where deployed. “The Marines are quite happy with it.”
Delivery will continue through 2005 until the full quantity is reached, he said. “We have recently qualified several dozens…and are now making [deliveries] weekly.”
The MTVR contract follows Plasan’s earlier successful cooperation with Armor Holdings to develop add-on armor for the Army’s M915 DaimlerChrysler ‘Freightliner’ truck.
Plasan has received an order for 500 add-on armor kits that will be made in Israel and another order for 738, part of which will be built in Israel, and part in the United States, Ziv said. Armor Holdings’ Phoenix, Ariz.-based Simula subsidiary is building part of the kits based on Plasan’s prints, he added.
The Freightliner project proved to the United States Plasan’s ability to create advanced tailor-made solutions specially designed to meet specific requirements. The “kitting operation,” as Ziv described it, is another hallmark of the company’s success.
Plasan develops the advanced armor and builds prototypes designed to provide protective solutions for specific needs and vehicle types. The fully modular kits are then packaged in boxes and delivered to the customer.
“We send people to train [installers] and provide support and materials,” Ziv said. “Then, [the customers] do it themselves, and that’s the beauty of it. They don’t need to develop a very elaborate set-up to build a really high-end product.”
The kits are designed for crews in the field to perform swift and easy assembly and disassembly according to changing mission specifications, Plasan said. Their modular nature allows them to be easily transferred from one vehicle to another.
The MTVR kits are being delivered to Armor Holdings here in Israel, where they will be transported to the Marine Corps at a time and place Ziv could not specify. But given the much publicized demand for service armor protection by defense and congressional leaders in the United States, it is not hard to conclude that most, if not all will soon be deployed in places such as Iraq.
Though the United States might be Plasan’s largest current customer, it builds armor solutions for several other countries, including of course, Israel, where it has been supplying lightweight and add-on armor to the IDF since the late 1980s, and is now the largest provider, Ziv said. It recently signed a new contract for IDF Humvees, where the chassis and engine hoods come from AM General and Plasan Sasa does the rest, he added.
Plasan provided a unique design for the Greek ministry of defense for Up-armored Humvees, working with Greek vehicle assembly firm, Evlo, Ziv said. It also works with The Netherlands’ DAF Trucks and has provided a new solution for the Dutch army’s tank carrier that meets Stanag level III specifications and has the highest light armor protection level in the world, he added.
Plasan also has several other customers, mainly in North America and Europe, but is also doing a lot of work with India’s Mahindra for that country’s defense ministry, he added.
Ziv said the company was the first in the world to provide vehicle light armor protection against IEDs, dating back to IDF deliveries in the mid-1990s when the need emerged from experiences in Southern Lebanon. This was well before the United States began to recognize the need, and well before it was caught unprepared for the current campaigns, he added.
“We have a lot of experience here with these kind of threats…they are changing all the time, but we are very prepared and can respond quickly,” Ziv said. There are always six or seven prototypes being developed at Plasan at any given time, he added.
The company will continue to look at the United States and other markets to identify new requirements, for the light armor kits as well as products in its full line of personal, aircraft and vessel armor solutions, some which are even capable of floating in water.
The company is growing rapidly in size, production capacity and reputation, especially since the Army and Marine Corps have begun to gain knowledge of Plasan and appreciation for its lifesaving solutions, Ziv said.
©2005 Access Intelligence, LLC.
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Plasan Sasa - Armour Protection Kits for Military and Civilian Vehicles, Aircraft and Personal Protection
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