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There is good reason why the SAMIL (South African Military) is regarded as one of the finest off-road vehicle ranges in the world. An outstanding high mobility vehicle, capable of negotiating all types of adverse terrain, the SAMIL's design is based on a concept from Magirus Deutz, an acknowledged international leader in off-road vehicle technology and modified to suite the harshest conditions of the African bush.
Small wonder therefore that it has been the SA Military's vehicle of choice for the last 25 years.
Formal development of the SAMIL began in 1979. Armscor's intention was not only to increase SA's self sufficiency in this regard but also to ensure maximum logistic support benefit for the Defense Force's vehicles. Numerous vehicles were evaluated to establish operational parameters and the Defense Force eventually decided to standardize on vehicles in the 2, 5 and 10 ton classes which would be manufactured by the private sector.
By the end of production in 1992, no fewer than 16 864 SAMIL, SACOM and SAMAG vehicles were built by Truckmakers. A further 585 were produced for civilian and other uses and sold by Armscor Marketing.
During this period many variants of the SAMIL were developed including several mine protected vehicles to counter the escalating landmine threat of the bush war. In 1978 Armscor developed and produced 62 mine protected cabs for the Magirus Deutz vehicles. These vehicles were known as the Kwêvoël MK 1 cab.
By now the SAMIL range of vehicles was in full production and the SA Army instructed Armscor to fit the SAMIL 100 with mine protected cabs. This was subsequently done and the new vehicle was named the Kwêvoël MKII cab.
By 1978 the landmine threat had reached critical proportions. The military decided to move off road in dense bush condition and the Kwêvoël MKII was upgraded to the MKII A version. Bush protection kits for the chassis, developed and tested by Armscor were also included in the MKIIA. Kwêvoël cabs for the SAMIL 100 were produced and mounted on various chassis configurations, including the Cargo, Fuel bowser, Withings recovery, 36 man bus and tipper variants. The same cab design was adopted on the SAMIL50 MKI chassis. The Cargo dropside, water tanker and the recovery vehicle were amongst the variants produced from this design.
Various configurations of mine protected vehicles were also developed and produced on the SAMIL 20 chassis. These included the SAMIL20 Rhino and SAMIL20 Bulldog for the Air Force, the SAMIL20 Ystervark, fitted with an 20mm anti aircraft gun system, the Kwêvoël prototype for the SA Army and production units for the civilian market.
The Kwêvoël proved to be one of the safest mine protected vehicles ever produced in the world owing to its weight, height off the ground and excellent cab design. It could withstand the simultaneous detonation of 3 TM 57 landmines or the equivalent of 21kg of TNT explosives anywhere below the cab. Because the SAMIL Kwêvoëls were so well protected, driving in the bush presented no problem. Many thousands of km's were covered across dense bush, under extremely high temperatures and in very soft sand. On many occasions the payload of the SAMIL100 Kwêvoël was more than 13 t especially when carrying ammunition and heavy food supplies, yet these reliable workhorses never failed to deliver their cargo to the fighting forces on time.
Armscor also developed bush protection kits for the SAMIL 100 and SAMIL 50 soft skin vehicles. Air, fuel and hydraulic lines were tucked into the chassis and bush bars and plastic fuel tanks were also fitted. These vehicles brought about significant cost savings during bush driving. There is no doubt that the mine protected variants of the SAMIL range of vehicles saved many lives which ensure the high moral amongst the soldiers. The production of SAMIL vehicles was terminated towards the end of 1992. Approximately 60 different variants have been derived from the SAMIL including the SAMAG and SACOM non-military vehicles.
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