Al-anwar Newspaper English news in Australia
The Bahrain Defence Force (BDF) is the previously unidentified country that acquired the EXPAL EIMOS 81 mm integrated mortar system, a photograph released by the Egyptian military on 19 December has confirmed.
An EIMOS system mounted on a URO VAMTAC ST5 vehicle could be seen in the background of the photograph showing Egyptian soldiers inspecting Bahraini equipment. The Egyptian military said that its soldiers have deployed to Bahrain’s Isa Air Base for the ‘Khalid bin al-Walid 2016’ special forces exercise, which will run until 30 December.
This EIMOS configuration is the same as the one displayed by the Spanish company at the DSEi show held in London in September 2015. It combines an 81 mm mortar with a hydro-pneumatic recoil system that allows it to be mounted on a comparatively light vehicle and the Techfire fire-control system. The vehicle can carry a crew of four and has storage space for 54 mortar bombs.
EXPAL announced in March 2015 that it had delivered an unspecified number of EIMOS systems to an undisclosed customer in the Middle East.
Spain told that the UN Register of Conventional Weapons that it exported six 81 mm mortars to Bahrain in 2015, but none to Egypt.
