Oncilla armored cars are actively used by Ukrainian Defense Forces across the frontline, and as we can see from the photos provided exclusively to Defense Express, they encounter serious challenges: the vehicle shown below triggered an anti-tank mine. Despite the severe damage, the crew survived and was capable of carrying on with the mission.
The Oncilla armored carrier is created as a purely military combat vehicle with triple damage tolerance capacity. Besides the monocoque hull, the vehicle has an increased mobility on rough soil, off-road, etc., the "silhouette" is low and so is the visibility in thermal imaging systems," notes a Beryl Design Bureau representative in a comment to Defense Express. The Ukrainian company represents Polish Mista, the manufacturer of Oncilla.
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Currently, the APC is being mass-produced in Poland, the workshops were loaded with orders due to the increased demand from the Ukrainian Army. Beryl's spokesperson also mentioned expanded cooperation with Ukrainian manufacturers.
"The most important part is that the production does not depend on some particular chassis manufacturer which might eventually 'backfire' and put the whole production to a halt. When making the Oncilla APC, the manufacturer diversifies suppliers of components and subsystems according to the formula 'main – alternative – reserve' [supplier], this allows us to be flexible and switch over to secondary logistic chains without affecting the performance parameters of the product in the outcome," the Ukrainian company assures.
Regarding the repairs, they add that effective and fast service of vehicles damaged in combat has been established: "The amount of time required for a capital repair depends on the character of damage, but [generally] a vehicle returns to the front in a month," the spox said.
Current repairs are done by Beryl Design Bureau's field service teams, even if it's on the frontline. Capital repairs were also worked out to the point it became "second nature" for the engineers: a damaged Oncilla is delivered to the Mista factory in Poland, and by that time all the spare parts, components, and subsystems are ready and waiting to be used.
For a reminder, Oncilla is a wheeled 4x4 armored car that was designed by Ukrainians. The initial vehicle was called Dozor-B, then it got licensed in Poland and produced at Mista under a new name. Find out more about the vehicle on Defense Express.
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