ROME - The Italian Ministry of Defense has signed a 20 million euro ($30 million) contract to acquire 81 Oto Melara turrets to equip its Iveco Light Multirole Vehicles (LMV), the firm said Oct. 26.
The Hitrole Light turrets will equip LMV vehicles, known as Lince vehicles by the Italian Army, which currently uses the vehicle in Afghanistan, the firm said.
The turrets will feature interchangeable 12.7mm and 7.62mm machine guns, a 40mm grenade launcher, thermal camera, laser range finder and TV camera.
The first turret will be delivered for operational testing four months after the contract is registered and "a large number" of the turrets will be delivered by the second half of 2010. Oto Melara, which is a unit of Italy's Finmeccanica, was the only firm to participate in the tender.
The Ministry of Defense's draft spending budget for 2010 includes an initial 6 million euro tranche of funding for the program. The contract also includes technical assistance.
The Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program is ready to test a few components that soldiers may have in their hands by 2010.
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