The Minister of Industry and New Technologies of Tajikistan Sherali Kabir told reporters in Dushanbe on August 7 that a military vehicle assembly plant was introduced into operation in Tajikistan in May this year.
The minister stated that military vehicles assembled in Tajikistan well inferior to those manufactured in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
According to him, a special department on development of defense industry has opened at the Ministry of Industry and New Technologies.
The minister noted that military vehicles in Tajikistan are produced by Canadian technology.
He further added that one of the advantages of Tajikistan-assembled armored vehicles is that “high-quality metal from own resources is used for their wheels.”
The minister did not say whether these vehicles had already arrived in the army or not.
Recall, President Emomali Rahmon on May 24 attended an official opening ceremony of a military vehicle assembly plant, Sipar Guruh (Shield Group) in the city of Tursunzoda.
The activities of this newly established enterprise appear mainly geared toward producing military automobiles, although it has capacity to build civilian vehicles too.
The enterprise that was reportedly established in cooperation with development partners currently has capacity to assemble up to 17 different types of vehicles with imported components, but it plans to increase that number in future.
The parts used for assembly are produced by STREIT Group, an armored vehicle manufacturer based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Sipar Guruh’s projected annual assembly of vehicles is set at 120 units, and in the future, taking into account the demand, this number will increase.
The vehicles being assembled at this enterprise are aimed at supplying the units of the Armed Forces of Tajikistan. It is also planned to export it to foreign countries in the future, according to the Tajik president’s official website.
Tajikistan is also expected to have its own reserve of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Recall, the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, Major-General Mohammad Bagheri traveled in Dushanbe in May 2022 to attend the opening of a facility for the assembling of Iranian-designed Ababil-2 tactical drones.
Concerning this issue, Sherali Kabir said that this is not a project of the Ministry of Industry and New Technologies, but noted that in the future, it will be possible to establish the production of drones for civilian use.
