South Korean defense company Hanwha Defense, an affiliate of Hanwha Corp., signed a contract with Indonesia’s national police last month to supply 25 armored personnel carriers by 2024. The company inked the deal with the National Police of the Republic of Indonesia on June 15 following an international bidding process for the project to procure the Barracuda Armored Personnel Carriers. Hanwha did not specify the contract value. Under the deal, Hanwha Defense will manufacture and deliver the vehicles. It would mark the second export of the Barracuda to Indonesia since 2004, when a contract was signed to provide a batch of 20 vehicles to the Indonesian Police Mobile Brigade Corps (Korps Brigade Mobil, Brimob).
The Mobile Brigade Corps is the special operations, paramilitary, and tactical unit of the Indonesian National Police. Formed in late 1945 as a special police corps named Pasukan Polisi Istimewa, under the Japanese, it was called Tokubetsu Keisatsutai. Some of its main duties are counter-terrorism, riot control, high-risk law enforcement where the use of firearms are present, search and rescue, hostage rescue, and bomb disposal operations. The Mobile Brigade Corps is a large component of the Indonesian National Police trained for counter-separatist and counter-insurgency duties, often in conjunction with military operations. Each Provincial Regional Police Headquarters (Polda) in Indonesia has its own Mobile Brigade unit.
The Barracuda has been developed by the Hanwa Defense (previously Daewoo Heavy Industries & Machinery Ltd), which is also prime contractor for the full-tracked Korean Infantry Fighting Vehicle and K9 Thunder 155 mm self-propelled howitzer. The vehicle has been operated by South Korean forces deployed overseas, as well as police forces in Indonesia, Iraq and Vietnam. It provides a wide space for a total of 15 crew, including a driver and a commander, as well as excellent riding quality. In addition, with its bullet-resistant windows, it is safe and yet it provides a wide range of view, which enables smooth driving under any driving conditions. With boarding doors at the left and rear sides, it is possible to select the boarding door according to the battlefield situation.
The baseline armored personnel carrier has a gross vehicle weight of 11.7 tonnes and is powered by a DaimlerChrysler OM 924LA turbocharged diesel engine developing 218 hp, which is coupled to a DaimlerChrysler Electrical Pneumatic Shifting (EPS) transmission with eight forward gears and six reverse. Run-flat inserts are standard and numerous optional equipment is available. Armament of the Barracuda depends on role but can typically include a 7.62 mm or .50 (12.7 mm) roof-mounted machine gun (MG), and banks of electrically operated smoke grenade launchers. The Barracuda is almost identical in appearance and specifications to the German Rheinmetall Landsysteme TM-170 series of 4 × 4 vehicle, which were developed in the 1970s.
