The Spanish Army Is Having Its MRAPs Repaired

The military-industrial enterprise Star Defense Logistics & Engineering (SDLE) announced it was chosen by Spain’s defense ministry for providing repair and maintenance services needed by the army’s fleet of MRAPs. The contract worth EU 260,000 stipulates that SDLE should work on the vehicles at its main facility in Madrid and a secondary site in Cordoba where the army has its vehicle maintenance center. The work is expected to be completed by November 2019. A press release shared by SDLE revealed 60 of the Spanish Army’s 100 RG-31 MRAPs purchased from South Africa were sent to Afghanistan.

SDLE’s track record for supplying spare parts and other services for military vehicles has given it an enviable reputation. Last year it won successive contracts to provide maintenance for the army’s tanks and APCs.

The Spanish Army’s Lince or Lynx 4×4’s and its Iveco trucks are undergoing repairs from SDLE as well. According to the company, it has been tasked with supplying spare parts for the Lynx 4×4, which is manufactured by the Italian truckmaker Iveco, in the next three years as part of a contract worth EU 4.5 million. As a result of its thriving business, SDLE boasts its employee numbers have swelled and it’s now entering the unmanned systems market with its own drone catalog for geomapping and surveillance.

With its head office in Madrid, SDLE is a manufacturer of vehicular parts for military inventories. Depending on the size of a particular contract, SDLE can maintain and repair second and third-generation MBTs such as the Leopard 1/2, the US Patton-series, and the French AMX-30. The same applies to armored personnel carriers like the prolific M113 and its derivatives as well as self-propelled howitzers. In 2018 SDLE won a contract to upgrade the army’s Leopardo 2E MBTs for their deployment in the Baltics as part of a NATO task force. The life cycle needs of wheeled platforms, light trucks, and other heavy vehicles are within SDLE’s capabilities as well.

SDLE is the sole remaining manufacturer of the Dragoon armored 4×4. Originally a US design from the 1980s meant to serve as a reconnaissance vehicle with modular weapons, the Dragoon had limited exports and was quickly forgotten after the Cold War. The vehicle lives on in SDLE’s catalog, however, and is offered as a new build with bespoke options. The Dragoon tactical vehicle has a gross weight of 13 tons and runs on a 300 horsepower engine giving it a 105 kilometer per hour top speed. Depending on the customer’s requirements, the SDLE Dragoon supports a variety of armaments, from a mortar to a 90mm gun.