Shortcomings discovered in testing have led to the Slovenia Defence Ministry canceling Israeli company Elbit as the supplier of the overhead remote controlled weapon stations for the 135 APCs bought by Slovenia from Finnish contractor Patria. The stations will instead be supplied by Norwegian company Kongsberg.

As the ministry said in a press release on Thursday, Elbit stations, intended for Patria's 8x8 armoured personnel carriers, showed shortcomings above all at very low temperatures.

Contractor Rotis, which is also Patria's intermediary in Slovenia, has failed to secure in time the contractually agreed quality and reliability level of the weapon stations, which is why it has suggested a change of supplier, the ministry said. It added that Rotis has accepted all the risks and costs of the change.

The ministry has signed an annex to the contract, agreeing with Rotis's proposal to chose Kongsberg's weapon station M 151 Protector.

The ministry moreover said that the annex was of purely technical nature, since the prices and the delivery deadlines have not changed, while the level of technical quality is even being increased.

STA