Kazakhstan Paramount Engineering plant stops production
“Kazakhstan Paramount Engineering” LLP (KPE) addressed an open letter of invitation to the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Mr. Tokayev K.K. – as a representative of domestic private production companies.
The enterprise is the only manufacturer of innovative armored vehicles in Central Asia. The project was carried out at the expense of private investments of shareholders and borrowed funds, without attracting budget funding. Within the framework of the project, a full transfer of innovative MRAP technologies for the production of BKM was carried out and today, thanks to this, Kazakhstan is the full owner of this modern technology. The local content level in production is over 70%.
This project was implemented in order to meet the needs of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kazakhstan, taking into account the Memorandum of Cooperation with the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Kazakhstan (MOD) dated 12.07.2017, which specifies the needs in the amount of up to 274 “Arlan” AWV units and 106 “Barys” AWV units and decisions of the Security Council of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
To date, KPE has successfully delivered 90 units of “Arlan” AWV to satisfy the demand of the MOD and plans to supply 30 more “Arlan” AWV units this year.
For 2020-2021 the order of the MOD has been sharply reduced from 30 to 11 units of “Arlan” AWV. And for 2021 there is no order at all! It appears that in the context of the global crisis and the increasing isolation of countries for the import of weapons, our own state, represented by the MOD, left the plant’s team of two hundred people without work, but at the same time it does not refuse to buy equipment and weapons of foreign production.
Saving the budget and direct sequestration of the order for our plant does not allow KPE to complete the stages of R&D with testing new equipment in the interests of the MOD. Due to the lack of funds, all new developments, such as:
“Barys 8×8” AWV with the 30-mm remotely controlled weapon station “Ansar”, 12,7-mm “Sunqar” remotely controlled weapon station, “Shugyla” automatic fire control system, “Barys 6×6” AWV with 120 mm. mortar system, own tracked infantry fighting vehicles etc., are practically suspended.
It takes more than 1 year to complete all the procedures for the adoption of the promising “Barys 8×8” AWV with the “Ansar” RCWS.
In the absence of the following measures, namely:
1) increase in the order within the framework of the state defense order for the supply of “Arlan” AWV for 2021-2022 to at least 30 units annually,
2) placing a purchase order in 2021 for 10 units of “Barys 8×8” AWV for experimental military operation,
3) development and approval of medium-term and long-term plans of the MOD for equipping the Armed Forces with AWV.
KPE will be forced to stop its activities in November 2020 and close production with further bankruptcy (the debt of LLP “KPI” to the bank exceeds 9 billion tenge) after fulfilling its obligations for the current year.