Forces: January 3, 2001

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: Oman has recently issued three major orders for military equipment: 

@ Alvis (UK) is to supply 80 new Piranha 8x8 armored vehicles. (This is, basically, the same vehicle in US Marine service as the LAV). These 80 vehicles, including a number of variants (infantry, mortar, anti-tank, command post, etc.) will outfit a second battalion. (Oman already has one battalion mounted in LAVs).

@ Matra BAe will supply Mistral-2 anti-aircraft launchers to Oman. These will be two-barrel launchers mounted on new Panhard VBL 4x4 armored cars.

@ Alvis (UK) will upgrade 60 existing Scorpion tracked recon vehicles. This will be more or less the same upgrade recently applied to British Scorpions, which includes replacing the gasoline engine with a new diesel engine.--Stephen V Cole