The Chadian Army is fielding at least twenty Turkish-made Nurol Makina Ejder Yalçin armored vehicles which were seen during a military parade in N’djamena on August 11 to mark the country’s independence day.
According to the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms sales, Turkey sold 20 wheeled armored units to Chad in 2018. Although, the register did not specify the type.
A photograph surfaced in September 2020, showing Chadians operating the Ejder Yalçins under the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA).
Made by Turkish Nurol Makina, the Nurol Ejder Yalçin is a tactical armored vehicle that offers ballistic, mine, and improvised explosive device (IED) protection.
The Nurol Ejder Yalçin tactical armored vehicle provides protection levels of STANAG 4569 from Level 1 to 4.
It has personnel carrying capacity of up to 9, manual or Remote Weapon Station system integration.
This past decade, Chad procured a plethora of armored vehicles to improve its military’s capacity.
In June, Chad’s military-led by strongman Mahamat Idriss Déby ordered sixty armored vehicles from the Emirati armor maker -The Armored Group (TAG).
Chad seeking an alternative is seeking alternate arms suppliers different from the usual Eastern bloc arms manufacturers.
The country recently acquired 30 heavily upgraded Type 59G main battle tanks from China to supplement the outdated Russian-made T-55 main battle tanks in use on the frontline.
And in 2019 the Chadian government signed a contract with Nigeria’s Proforce Defence for the sale of twenty improved Ara 2 mine-resistant ambush-protected (MRAP) vehicles.
In addition, in July last year, the United States has delivered 28 David light armored vehicles designed by Alabama-based MDT Armor Corporation, to the Chadian military to support its G5 Sahel counterterror commitments.