Press Release
The Matador and the Marauder, both state-of-the-art armoured vehicles developed by South Africa’s Paramount Group, are to be manufactured in Jordan. These are the highest specification mine-protected vehicles currently available on the world market, specifically developed for applications in the peacekeeping, defence and policing environments. The two vehicles have been designed in such a way as to be able to be easily customised for a wide range of applications.
These vehicles were designed by the Paramount Group in South Africa and will be manufactured by the *King Abdullah II Design and Development
Bureau** *(KADDB) in Jordan. KADDB is Jordan’s primary Governmental military agency for research, development and manufacture for defence and commercial applications. It was established by Royal Decree in 1999 and serves as independent technical advisor to the Jordan Armed Forces (JAF).
Paramount Group has had a very long standing relationship with KADDB and the two organisations have collaborated on numerous projects over several years. Paramount Group has shared with KADDB its vision of creating a world class sustainable defence industry base in Jordan.
The Matador and Marauder were first displayed by Paramount and KADDB at the IDEX defence exhibition in Abu Dhabi during February 2007. Since then the vehicles have gone from prototype to full production status. At the SOFEX 2008 special operations forces exhibition in Amman at the end of March 2008, the Jordan Armed Forces announced that it would be acquiring an initial batch of 50 Matadors and Marauders for security and peacekeeping roles, making it the first customer for these vehicles.
“KADDB is excited about this partnership with Paramount for the manufacturing of the Matador and Marauder vehicles, which are truly world-class designs,” says Dr Moayad Samman, Chairman and CEO of KADDB.
“I am especially pleased that the Jordan Armed Forces have placed their trust in KADDB and Paramount, by being the first to adopt these new generation vehicles”.
The Matador and Marauder are both able to be customised for a wide variety of applications, but it is their base-level safety measures that make them world leaders in the field of preserving lives. Both have the famous, South African-designed V-shaped hull concept, used to great effect in landmine-resistant vehicles all over the world. Add to this several groundbreaking protective measures and you have the world’s only armoured vehicles in the 15-ton weight class with protection against 0.50-calibre ammunition as standard. Both vehicles are highly mobile and rapidly deployable both on- and off-road, and the unique spaced-armour design makes them resistant to ballistic attack up to STANAG level 3.
This standardised protection is effective against heavy machine-gun fire, including Dragunov armour-piercing rounds. The Marauder seats 8-10 and boasts superior resistance to landmine blasts as well as spaced-armour protection. The 10-12-seater Matador has the same base-level protective shell and armour, with a higher certified level of landmine protection than any other defence vehicle currently available on the market.
Ivor Ichikowitz, Executive Chairman of Paramount Group, indicates that in line with Paramount’s business ethos, this will also involve transfer of technology and ongoing collaboration in the development of product to meet the markets’ specific conditions. Thus, the core technology for these specialised mine protected vehicles has been designed and developed in South Africa, but will continue to be customised in Jordan to meet specific requirements of operations for specific customers.
*Vehicles manufactured in Jordan will also be marketed in several other countries in the region. *
*The production of these vehicles will be housed and executed within the KADDB`s Private Industrial Park (free zone). This industrial park offers *companies specialising in the defence and automotive industries *an integrated full package of incentives, tax exemptions, state of the art infrastructure, logistics / support services, high level of security and advanced telecom services. *
*This move will enhance Jordan’s manufacturing capability, in line with the aim of making the country a centre of excellence for the design and manufacture of customised military vehicles, increasing security capacity in the entire Middle East region. *
*”Paramount has had a long and proud partnership with Jordan and with KADDB, an organisation that we admire a great deal. It is for this reason that we are very pleased that Jordan was Paramount’s first customer for the Matador and Marauder,” says Paramount Group Executive Chairman Ivor Ichikowitz. “Our partnership with KADDB is growing from strength to strength and we are committed to working with KADDB to realise its vision of Jordan becoming a major regional manufacturer of Defence and security equipment.” *
This year Paramount will launch the Matador and Marauder in Africa, while a brand-new vehicle – the Maverick, designed specifically for internal security purposes – will be revealed to the world at the African Aerospace and Defence exhibition (AAD 2008) to be held in Cape Town this September
