The Egyptian Army has almost 2,000 members of the US supplied United Defense M113A2 family of aluminium armoured vehicles and to improve their battlefield survivability the Kader Factory for Developed Industries has developed an add-on passive armour package.

The Kader passive armour package consists of panels of steel armour which are fixed to the front and sides of the hull, each panel weighing 25 kg. Between the armour plate and the original aluminium armour of the M113A2 vehicle is a layer of foam.

The total weight of the add-on armour package is about 950 kg so the amphibious characteristics of the vehicle are retained. Some of the steel armour panels are interchangeable and no special tools are required for their removal.

The Kader add-on armour panels provide ballistic protection against 23 mm projectiles fired from a range of 200 m through a 70° arc over the front of the vehicle, against 14.5 mm Armour-Piercing (AP) projectiles fired from a range of 100 m through a 90° arc over the front of the vehicle and against 7.62 x 54 mm small arms fired from a range of 30 m through a full 360°.

Although originally designed for the basic M113 I series of APC, the add-on armour kit is also applicable to specialised Egyptian M113 vehicles including those in the 120 mm mortar carrier, air defence and anti-tank roles.

Development complete. Ready for production.