Newly arrived Pandur armored personnel carriers, that reinforced Czech contribution to ISAF mission in Afghanistan, accomplished their first live fires at a range near Kabul.
The live fires of four wheeled PANDUR II CZ M1 armored personnel carriers were held at the Black Horse Base close to Kabul on the second January week. Vehicles reinforce the military part of the Czech Provincial Reconstruction Team in Logar, where Czechs have been serving together with Americans at the Shank Base since January 2008.
Following transportation of the vehicles from the Czech Republic, PRT specialists took over machines and materiel and completed the bar-and-rail protected vehicles with 7.62 mm caliber machine guns and 30 mm caliber cannons.
“These vehicles have additional Armour and all around they are protected against hand-thrown anti-tank weapons,” explains First Lieutenant Jiri K., who commands a combat support platoon with personnel of the 41st Mechanized Battalion having their home base at Zatec, Czech Republic.
Pandurs replace BVP-2 armored personnel carriers, which served at PRT Logar from January 2008 to December 2010. “I am very glad our PRT has these vehicles available since they belong to the most modern weapons our military is equipped with,“ Lieutenant Colonel Ctirad Gazda, commander of military part of Czech PRT Logar, says and continues: “They not only widen numbers of major equipment, but first of all increase variability in decision-making on their use in relation to specific tasks.“
