DINGO 2 vehicles for Luxembourg's Armed Forces

MUNICH: Following Germany, Austria, Belgium and the Czech Republic, Luxembourg is now the fifth user state to place its trust in DINGO 2 patrol and security vehicles from Krauss-Maffei Wegmann for the protection of its soldiers on missions abroad. 
 
The armed forces of Luxembourg, whose soldiers are deployed in the context of the ISAF mission in Afghanistan, among other places, are acquiring 48 DINGO 2s through NAMSA (the NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency) for their two reconnaissance companies. NAMSA is the logistics services organisation of all the NATO states. It ensures that all the weapons systems that are used by several member states can be purchased efficiently and cost-effectively. Krauss-Maffei Wegmann will be delivering the 48 vehicles to Luxembourg's armed forces in 2009 und 2010. 
 
"In the current crisis regions the need of the NATO troops for extremely well protected wheeled vehicles continues to be unchanged. This order underlines the technological lead position of the DINGO 2 in this area," said Frank Haun, Chairman of the Board of Management at KMW. 
 
It is the opinion of experts that DINGO 2 is the best-protected wheeled vehicle in its class. It offers its crew of eight what is currently the best protection against modern small arms, artillery shrapnel, antipersonnel and anti-tank mines, as well as NBC warfare agents. 
 
The vehicles for Luxembourg's armed forces will also be fitted with a mast system, as well as optical and opttronic reconnaissance equipment from the French Thales Group. The Thales Group is the main contractor for Luxembourg's armed forces. 
 
In addition to Germany, the DINGO 2 has already been ordered by several international reference customers such as Austria, the Czech Republic and Belgium, with total orders amounting to over 700 vehicles, and it has successfully proved its effectiveness in a large number of international deployments, including Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Lebanon. 
 
The vehicle is available in different mission configurations. These include the security and patrol version, the mobile command post, the NC detector version and the emergency ambulance. The excellent all-terrain UNIMOG chassis of the DINGO 2 enables top speeds of over 90 km/h in all versions of the vehicle, and a range of around 1000 km. 
 
In addition to which, the various versions can all be transported by air in C-160 Transall, C-130 Hercules and A400M aircraft.  
 
Krauss-Maffei Wegmann GmbH & Co. KG is Europe’s market leader for armoured wheeled and tracked vehicles. At sites in Germany, Greece, the Netherlands and the United States 2.800 employees develop, produce and support a product portfolio that ranges from air-transportable and highly protected wheeled vehicles to reconnaissance, air defense and artillery systems all the way to main battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and bridge layers. 
 
Furthermore KMW possesses a broad system competence in the field of civil and military simulation, command and control applications and fully automatic remote controlled gun mounts. The armed forces of more than 30 nations worldwide rely on operational systems supplied by KMW.