UAE parades new Nimr vehicles

Thanks to Jonathan for the link!

via Janes

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Armed Forces displayed its new Nimr N35 armoured vehicles for the first time during a parade to mark the country's 45th National Day on 5 December.

The vehicles seen in the parade were all 4x4 N35-4 rather than 6x6 N35-6 versions and fitted with Dynamit Noble FeWaS remote weapon stations, a type that has previously been seen on Oshkosh M-ATV armoured vehicles in service with the Emirati military.

The N35 was originally developed by BAE Systems Land Systems South Africa (now part of Denel Vehicle Systems) as the RG35 before it was sold to Nimr Automotive.

Denel announced in November 2015 that it had signed a ZAR900 million (then worth around USD63 million) contract with Nimr to produce N35 vehicles. The Denel Group annual report for 2015/2016 said the deal is estimated to be worth ZAR1.2 billion in total.

IHS Jane's was told at the time of the announcement that the contract covers initial low-rate production of N35 vehicles in South Africa, the transfer of the manufacturing process to the UAE, and further development of the N35-4 and N35-6 variants.

Nimr announced in June that the N35 was being built at its plant in Abu Dhabi's Tawazun Industrial Park.

Two open-top versions of Nimr's Ajban family of 4x4 vehicles were also seen during the parade.

Wow.  Everyone is hot and heavy over Special Ops type patrol vehicles.  What I don't understand is why the big specialized versions of these things are so popular.

Has anyone in the Light Infantry/Special Ops Community actually done a study on the utility of these vehicles in a real live shooting war?

Additionally with UAE building the RG35, it seems that making MRAPS into combat vehicles is continuing.  Past a certain size it seems to be a losing proposition.  Democratic nations will not allow endless participation in counter insurgency....and that seems to be the sweet spot for these type vehicles.  Well old skool counter insurgency.  If Iraq/Syria and Ukraine point to the future then even in that type warfare you're gonna need full on combat vehicles if you want to survive.