Ukrainian Armor company (part of NAUDI) was forced to pause the codification process for VOLS buggies due to a conflict of concepts with Ukraine's Ministry of Defense the defense ministry demands Level 2 protection per STANAG 4569 standard for these buggies, typically a requirement for 10-ton vehicles.
"Such armor destroys the main advantage: speed and maneuverability. Therefore, codification was paused while the military clarifies technical requirements," Ukrainian Armor CEO Vladyslav Belbas told NV in an interview.
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He emphasizes that conceptually, the VOLS buggy is a light mobile platform meant for delivering groups under enemy fire and rapid evacuation.
Currently, the company is ready for serial production of VOLS buggies at an initial rate of 50 units per month with rapid expansion upon signing large contracts previously, the possibility of producing hundreds of such buggies per month was mentioned.
However, today only volunteer funds are buying the buggies. But individual purchases don't provide the workload that serial production is designed for, Belbas notes.
The price of one VOLS buggy depending on configuration ranges from €10,000 to €20,000. They're noted to already be successfully operating at the front.
As a reminder, the VOLS buggy's existence first became known in August this year.It's a design by Ukrainian constructor Volodymyr Sadyk, with the latest buggy version proposed for production at Ukrainian Armor facilities.
The buggys range is 300 km, with serial production using a 1.5-liter French Renault K9K engine.
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