Date: Issue 131 - June 2024 Update: November 07, 2024
The EFES-2024 Combined Joint Live-Fire Exercise, one of the largest planned exercises of the Turkish Armed Forces, was conducted from May 9 to 30 in the İzmir Bay and Doğanbey Live-Fire Exercise Area. The exercise also included the participation of the ZAHA Marine Assault Vehicle (MAV), which FNSS indigenously developed as part of the projects carried out by the Secretariat of Defence Industries to meet the needs of the Turkish Armed Forces.
The ZAHA Marine Assault Vehicle project was initiated in 2017 by the Secretariat of Defence Industries (SSB) and the main contractor, FNSS, to fulfill the armored Armored Amphibious Assault Vehicle requirement of the Turkish Naval Forces Command. The project involved the delivery of a total of 27 vehicles, including 23 Personnel Carriers, two Command and Control vehicles, and two Recovery vehicles. The kick-off meeting for the project took place on March 31, 2017, followed by the critical design review meeting on October 19, 2019. Within approximately two years, subsystem and qualification tests were conducted, and prototype vehicle production was completed. On March 4, 2021, a test preparation and review meeting was held. Over the course of two years, a total of 44 system-level qualification tests were successfully carried out. On February 7, 2023, the qualification process for the vehicles was finalized with the approval of the Secretariat of Defence Industries. Subsequently, on February 20, 2023, serial production acceptance activities commenced with the participation of officials from the SSB and Naval Forces Command, and all deliveries were completed by the second quarter of 2023.