The Story of the Philippine National Police's Shladot MDT Tiger Mk. 2 Armored Vehicle

When talking about armored vehicles, the primary discussion usually points to the ones currently operated by the Armed Forces of the Philippines, specifically the ones operated either by the Philippine Army and the Philippine Marine Corps. 

The Philippine National Police or PNP usually come with law enforcement duties congruent with the assurance of giving security and safety of the citizenry in a domestic sense, where it only comes with patrol vehicles and basic armored vehicles that deter criminals from brewing more disorder in the Philippine society. Its special forces, in this manner, also have its fleet of armored vehicles worthy for discussion in this platform.

DISCUSSION OVERVIEW

The Philippine National Police's Special Action Force (SAF) operates several of such armored personnel carrier seen in the image above.
Image captured by Third Anne Peralta-Malonzo, via Image Source.

At the general thought, the primary elements for ensuring the mandate of the Philippine National Police primarily dwell in the premise that points more on law enforcement and a single important component in the Philippine Criminal Justice System, ensuring an orderly and just society with the full implementation of the country’s national law safeguards the primary safety and interest of the Filipino people. And with this mandate also comes ensuring the country’s stability and internal security measures.

Talking about the country’s internal security measures, it also comes with various challenges that a country’s police force needs to consider, although this usually comes with the Philippine government’s force apparatus like the Armed Forces of the Philippines. 

This is usually the case for the country’s counterinsurgency operations or COIN OPS, as both the police and the military plays a part in mitigating the threats originating from both the communists and Moro separatists, if not outright terrorists.

As these mountain-bound bandits come more prepared and armed as compared to petty criminals at streets, it does not come as a surprise that the Philippine National Police, through the Special Action Force or SAF, requires an armored vehicle that enables the law enforcement component of the Philippine government to partake with its needed objectives, while minimizing the need for reliance on the support of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in dealing with this type of threat.

Typically, the armored vehicle composition of the Philippine National Police Special Action Force or PNP-SAF usually composes of the older V-150 Cadillac Gage Commando Armored Personnel Carrier, the same type of vehicle that also come as a mainstream wheeled armored vehicle of the Philippine Army, alongside the GKN Simba and the newly purchased VBTP-MR Guarani 6x6 Armored Personnel Carrier. This comes reminiscent of an era when the organization was still the Philippine Constabulary.

With the Armed Forces of the Philippines modernizing its military hardware and equipment, and with the age of the V-150 Cadillac Gage Commando APCs of the PNP-SAF becoming older, it only comes sense for the organization to secure a newer type of armored vehicle, whereby it specifically adheres to the law enforcement organization’s own specifications, while improving its protection capabilities and slowly getting the older platform replaced, eventually.

This refers to the Shladot MDT Tiger Mk. 2 Armored Vehicle, regarded as one of the primary security platform of the Philippine National Police Special Action Force, currently augmenting its specialized operational needs, particularly in dealing with any future occurrences relating to counterinsurgency operations, counter-terrorist operations, and other operations that is critical for the country’s national security and interest that aligns with discussing on topics encompassing Philippine defense.

In this piece, the discussion delves primarily to the usual key points on the company that produces the armored vehicle, the specifications of the armored vehicle highlighted for this topic, and related comparison to the other armored vehicle platform that the Philippine National Police - Special Action Force have in its inventory. Ultimately, the points provided give detailed insight and information regarding the newest armored vehicle platform that the law enforcement agency has in its arsenal.

ABOUT SHLADOT MDT

A screen grab of the Shladot MDT Website.

Part of understanding the Tiger Mk. 2 Armored Vehicle that the Philippine National Police’s Special Action Force came into being is the background of the company that helped develop and produce this platform, whereby its practices in ensuring a quality product helped the law enforcement agency’s elite unit consider its capabilities for its use, particularly on its impact on organization’s‌ critical mission objectives. As for the MDT Tiger Mk. 2 Armored Vehicle, this is just one of Shladot’s multiple products.

At a glance, Shladot is an Israeli firm that primarily focuses on providing both commercial transport systems and armored vehicles. This is different to the weapon systems principle practiced by its peers like Elbit Systems Limited or Rafael Advanced Systems, both of which helped provide the Armed Forces of the Philippines its capacity-building requirements from units of Sabrah Light Tank and ATMOS 2000 self-propelled artillery to batteries of Spyder Ground-Based Air Defense Systems, respectively. 

Regarding its business, Shladot focuses on four key areas on operating and promoting its business operations, of which one covers its armored vehicle business that caters military, law enforcement, and civilian operations. 

The other areas include Defense and Law Enforcement Mobile Systems that deal with riot control components, cash in transit, and command shelters, Commercial Transport Systems that cover truck body models for logistical purposes, and Engineering and Metal Works.

In Shladot’s product line webpage, it lists specifically the products that the Israeli firm markets and looked after by prospective end-users like the Philippine National Police’s Special Action Force where, aside from the Tiger Mk. 2 Armored Vehicle, they also market the David armored vehicle, along with other armored solutions for various aircraft such as for UH-1H Huey, Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk and AW-109 utility helicopters, along with armored kits for fixed-wing aircraft like the C-130 cargo aircraft.

While Shladot’s product line involves armored vehicles, it only encompasses the armored personnel carrier type of vehicle, of which this comes appropriately to the law enforcement agencies like the Riot Control and Assault Ramp Vehicles it offers, rather than full-pledged combat vehicles that its other Israeli firms and contemporaries produce, pointing once again to the contribution provided by Elbit Systems have to the Philippine Army. Still, its successful sale of the Tiger Mk 2 to the PNP-SAF helps market its products.

This Israeli firm comes publicly traded in various stock exchanges in the United States, such as Dow Jones, S&P 500, and Nasdaq. The company’s headquarters is at 18 Keren Hayesod street Kiryat Ata PO Box 10656 Haifa, 26119 Israel. 

It means that Shladot’s successful sale of Tiger Mk. 2 armored vehicles to the Philippine National Police - Special Action Force helps not only to improve its stock position but also enables the company to cement its foothold further within the Philippine defense market.

As the research conducted did not successfully get additional information regarding the company’s history and development, there are some relevant details regarding its transactional performance, such as the successful sale of the David Armored Vehicle to the Israel Defense Force that it has become their own mainstay armored vehicle to protect its troops from immediate threats. The next phase of the discussion will now delve into the Tiger Mk. 2 Armored Vehicle and its specifications.

SPECIFICATIONS

Tiger Mk. 2's specifications. From Shladot's Brochure.

In delving the specifications of a vehicle further in deep detail gives the additional and substantiated understanding about its capabilities, along with its advantages and disadvantages that it possess as compared to other armored vehicles that the Philippine National Police Special Action Force currently has, along with the other units currently serving the Philippine Army and the Philippine Marine Corps, as this discussion about the Tiger Mk. 2 Armored Vehicle rolls on.

According to this brochure presented by Shladot, the primary derivative on the Tiger Mk. 2 design is with its chassis, of which it is likely derived from Dodge and Ford off-road truck components, specifically the Ford F550 or the Dodge 5.7 pickup chassis, along with 380 horsepower engine. Aside from the chassis, the armor of the Tiger Mk. 2 design comes with STANAG 4569 Level III protection, whereby it can protect the troops inside from 7.62x51mm armor-piercing rounds.

Referring once again to the presented brochure, the Shladot MDT Tiger Mk. 2 comes with three variants, of which it specifies according to the armored vehicle's length and the troop capacity that each size might have come up with. As for the sizes, these are the 5000mm, 5400mm, and the full 6200mm. 

All the three variants of different length still share similarities, with the vehicle's width at around 2420mm, and an overall height of 2400mm with five doors, two each on both left and right parts and one on the rear.

Based on the images provided for the Philippine National Police - Special Action Force’s Tiger Mk 2 armored personnel carrier, the variant that the law enforcement agency’s special unit currently operates is the full 6200mm variant. This means that PNP-SAF affords to carry and protect additional personnel in crucially conducted mission objectives that the elite force partake in, basically availing the best variant that Shladot MDT comes in offering on its product line.

Going further, the vehicle’s Gross Vehicle Weight comes at 8,800 kilograms or 8.8 tons, with the maximum number of passengers allowable for the largest variant of the Tiger Mk 2 armored personnel carrier comes at 12 personnel. 

Another factor to play aside from the vehicle’s weight is the transmission, which, while the engine horsepower comes at 350-380hp, it has a torque of 827 and an automatic transmission, ensuring the driver’s continuous focus on the road and the operations at hand.

The Shladot MDT Tiger Mk 2 armored personnel carrier comes with two configurations, one of which is the troop carrier setup and the other being the command vehicle, with the first one having maximized seating comfort and wide space, especially in the vehicle’s rear part, for battle-ready elite troops of the Special Action Force to get deployed in operations. The command vehicle has the optional system components onboard, specifically to provide a platform to coordinate troops during active mission objectives.

This platform count as the recent and newest acquisition project that the Philippine National Police has on the armored vehicle category, with its Special Action Force units having experience in operating and deploying armored personnel carriers before, using an iconic armored vehicle that can trace back when the organization was still the Philippine Constabulary, a gendarmerie-oriented service branch within the Armed Forces of the Philippines equaled to the Army, Air Force, and Navy today.

COMPARING TO PNP-SAF'S V-150 CADILLAC GAGE COMMANDO APC

The Philippine National Police Special Action Force also maintains V-150 Cadillac Gage Commando APC in service.
Image Source.

Aside from the Shladot MDT Tiger Mk 2 Armored Personnel Carrier or APC that the Philippine National Police’s Special Action Force has as the newest platform in its fleet of armored vehicles, it also comes with other type of armored personnel carriers that it operate through the years before the entry of this Israeli-built armored vehicle into operation. This refers to the V-150 Cadillac Gage Commando APC, a legendary APC that both the PNP-SAF and the Armed Forces of the Philippines operate.

As an iconic armored personnel carrier developed by US-based company Cadillac Gage in the late 1960s and first entered service ever since the early 1970s, the V-150 Commando Armored Personnel Carrier has seen wide use by multiple military users across the globe, which includes Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, and the Philippines within the Southeast Asia region. Saudi Arabia and Taiwan are among the largest users of the type, with 1,100 and 300 units, respectively.

The V-150 Cadillac Gage Commando is simply just one out of multiple variants of the armored personnel carriers or ‘light armored vehicles’ as what it is its official designation, with the others being the V-100 and V-200 armored personnel carriers, along with the likes of the LAV-300 infantry fighting vehicles that the Philippine Marine Corps still operate today. The numbers mentioned reflect the commonality of having this armored personnel carrier used among the militaries that use this platform.

For context, the specifications of the V-150 Cadillac Gage Commando that both the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police - Special Action Force have comes with the following information, with the armored vehicle’s dimensions coming at 5.69 meter long armored hull, 2.26 meters width, 1.98 meters high to the hull top, and 2.54 meters high to the turret roof. It has the weight of 9.89 tons, and the capacity of carrying three (3) crew plus two (2) passenger troops onboard.

Going further to the specifications, the V-150’s propulsion system comes with the Cummins V-504 V8 diesel engine that powers the vehicle’s mobility and onboard electrical suites, with the power output of the engine of 202 horsepower at 3,300rpm. 

This gives the V-150 Cadillac Gage Commando its mobility performance with its top speed of around 88 kilometers per hour on road and 5 kilometers per hour afloat. The vehicle’s power to weight ratio is at 20.4 hp/t or horsepower per ton.

In a full comparison, this means that the Shladot MDT Tiger Mk. 2 Armored Vehicle that the Philippine National Police - Special Action Force receives come as a larger hull platform with a larger space that can accommodate additional personnel onboard, as compared to the V-150 Cadillac Gage Commando Armored Personnel Carriers that it currently have. However, the V-150 Cadillac Gage Commando typically comes with its own gun turret that is useful for firepower support needed by ground personnel.

This means that both platforms have presented its own advantages and disadvantages to the mission requirements of the Special Action Force, whereby one type of vehicle showcases its firepower capabilities in supporting the provided mission objectives, while the other provides sufficient protection for a bulk of personnel deployed, especially when done in transit as it ensures that the personnel inside an armored vehicle has sufficient safety against any untoward threats like an ambush.

IN A FINAL NOTE

Here is an image of the troops belonging to the Special Action Force doing a march during an event.
Image Source.

The Philippine National Police - Special Action Force’s newest asset like the Shladot MDT Tiger Mk. 2 Armored Vehicle come as a welcoming improvement for the national police’s special unit, especially when it comes into adding protection and safety for its troops during transportation, and also coming as an essential, yet important support element for its operations. Going further, the platform serves as an important complement to the existing armored vehicle assets like the V-150 Cadillac Gage Commando APC. 

As for Shladot MDT as a company, the sale of its armored vehicle to the Philippine National Police’s Special Action Force enables it to get within the country’s own defense market, in an essence that it gets along with other compatriot peers that have their respective projects with other government bodies such as the Armed Forces of the Philippines under the Department of National Defense. This refers to the likes of Elbit Systems and Rafael Advanced Systems Limited, bagging contracts from the Philippine military.

The Tiger Mk. 2’s entry to the Philippine National Police’s Special Action Force is reminiscent to how the likes of the VBTP-MR Guarani 6x6 Armored Personnel Carriers are for the Philippine Army, both of which count as an improvement for each uniform agency’s capacity improvement efforts, particularly coming as part of ongoing efforts to improve the welfare of the organization’s troops in battle readiness and ensuring the concrete role of logistics and support services in the field operations.

Shaldot MDT's prior experience in its sale of David Armored Vehicles to the Israel Defense Force reflects much in its growth and reputation as a company that sells such type of products, so much that its sale of the Tiger Mk. 2 Armored Personnel Carriers to the Philippine National Police's Special Action Force further improves not only on its sales numbers but also in providing a seed in cementing itself within the country's market for armored vehicles.

With the capacity of carrying 12 personnel onboard, along with the fact that the Philippine National Police purchased at least six (6) units of its type for the Special Action Force, enabled the law enforcement agency to increase its troop armored capacity into protecting and securing at least seventy-six (76) personnel onboard, of which includes the crew that drives and manages the guns onboard the platform. Still, this is far less than the larger number of V-150 Commandos the agency has in time.

Given the number of Tiger Mk. 2 armored vehicle purchased and currently used by the Philippine National Police - Special Action Force, there is a room for any future orders for this type of armored vehicle, provided that it satisfy the law enforcement agency's requirements and slated plans in the upcoming years, if not decades. Still, its entry and current operations help partake the daily operational requirements of the Philippine National Police in an increased security point of view.

As the Philippine National Police's primary special unit also playing a crucial role that aligns that with the discussions regarding Philippine national defense initiatives, its capacity-building advances provides a significant contribution in securing the country, particularly on its domestic security affairs, of which it underscores its role on a greater deterrence approach of the country especially now that the Armed Forces of the Philippines itself embarks more into territorial defense posture.

(c) 2024 PDA.

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