Talha is an armoured personnel carrier (APC) designed and manufactured in Pakistan by APC Factory of Heavy Industries Taxila (HIT). The vehicle is based on the M113-A2-Mk.1 APC. The

Pakistan Army The Pakistan Army (, ) is the Army, land service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The roots of its modern existence trace back to the British Indian Army that ceased to exist following the partition of India, Partition of British India, wh ...

plans to deploy 2,000 Talha APCs by year 2010. TALHA is an all terrain, amphibious infantry support vehicle with 12.7 mm machine gun as its main armament. Adequate crew compartment space provides excellent crew comfort. Survivability is enhanced through use of external fuel tanks. Various forms of bolt-on armour can be added to increase armour protection of the vehicle.

History

The decision to develop the Talha was made after U.S. sanctions imposed on Pakistan made it impossible for HIT to continue manufacturing the M113. The Talha's design is based on the M113, one notable difference being the positions of the engine and driver station."Talha Series of Tracked Armoured Vehicles"
jedsite The Al-Talha is being marketed for export and was displayed at the IDEAS 2002 defence exhibition, Karachi, in 2002. In November 2004 an Iraqi delegation ordered 44 Talha APCs.

Engine

There is a flexibility in the design that the Engine compartment can accommodate power pack with 275 HP Detroit Diesel 6V53T turbocharged engine or 330 HP UTD-20, a Ukrainian engine

Operators

Current operators

; *

: 400+ in Service; Total 2,000 planned to be deployed. ; *

Iraqi Army The Iraqi Ground Forces (Arabic: القوات البرية العراقية), or the Iraqi Army (Arabic: الجيش العراقي), is the ground force component of the Iraqi Armed Forces. It was known as the Royal Iraqi Army up until the coup ...

: 44 delivered by Pakistan in 2006.

Civilian operators

; * Sindh Police: 40 delivered by Wah Ordnance Factory in 2012.

Variants

* Maaz - Fitted with

Baktar-Shikan The HJ-8 or Hongjian-8 and Baktar Shikan (Pakistani version) () is a second generation tube-launched, optically tracked, wire-guided anti-tank missile system which was originally deployed by China's People's Liberation Army since the late 1980s. ...

anti-tank missile firing unit * Mouz - Fitted with RBS 70 surface-to-air missile firing unit * Sakb - Command post vehicle *

Al Qaswa Al-Qaswa is an armoured personnel carrier (APC) variant of the APC Talha. Designed for logistics roles, the vehicle can carry 6 tonnes of military supplies in its cargo compartment across all types of cross-country terrain (see Geography of Pakist ...

- Logistics & cargo vehicle

APC Saad

APC Saad is a stretched 6 road wheel variant of Talha. Further variants of Saad: * Al-Hadeed - Armoured recovery vehicle * Al-Hamza - Infantry fighting vehicle

References

External links

Defence.pk image gallery
{{Pakistani Armed Forces Science and technology in Pakistan Armoured fighting vehicles of Pakistan Armoured fighting vehicles of the post–Cold War period Tracked armoured personnel carriers