Slovenian web resource 24ur.com In the Jure Tepina article "Slovenski Valuki na ukrajinsko fronto" ("Slovenian Valuks on the Ukrainian Front") reported that the Slovenian government "in complete secrecy" supplied Ukraine with 20 Valuk wheeled armored personnel carriers from the presence of the Slovenian armed forces (a licensed version of the Austrian Pandur I 6x6 armored personnel carrier). Their delivery to Ukraine "was completed this week."
LKOV Valuk (Pandur I) 6x6 wheeled armored personnel carrier from the 10th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Brigade of the Slovenian Army (c) Armed Forces of SloveniaRepair, preparation and delivery of 20 Valuk armored personnel carriers allocated to Ukraine from availability took several months.
The Valuk armored personnel carriers transferred to Ukraine were transported from Slovenia by a Boeing C-17A military transport aircraft from the NATO SAC (Strategic Airlift Capability) joint program, of which Slovenia is a member, with delivery to an intermediate hub in Slovakia or Poland.
The Pandur I (6x6) armored personnel carrier was developed and manufactured until recently by the Austrian company Steyr-Daimler-Puch (since 1998 - by Steyr-Daimler-Puch Spezialfahrzeug, acquired in 2003 by the American corporation General Dynamics and now part of it as General Dynamics European Land Systems-Steyr). For the Slovenian Army, 13 Austrian-made Pandur I armored personnel carriers were purchased in the 1990s and then in 1999-2006 72 Pandur I armored personnel carriers were assembled under license by the Slovenian metallurgical and machine-building plant STO in Ravna na Koroshkem (now the remnants of this enterprise make up the production base of Sistemska tehnika), under the designation LKOV Valuk. The Valuk armored personnel carriers have a full combat weight of 13.6 tons, a capacity of 10 people with a crew, and are equipped with a 12.7 mm M2 machine gun or a 40 mm Heckler automatic grenade launcher mounted on an armored manual turret & Koch GMG. In the Slovenian army, the Valuk APC is equipped with the 10th and 20th infantry regiments (battalion equivalent), which are, respectively, part of the 1st and 72nd brigades.
It is reported that earlier, since the beginning of the Russian special military operation, Slovenia has already transferred to the Ukrainian side a significant amount of military equipment from the presence of its armed forces, including 28 upgraded M-55S tanks, 35 M-80A infantry fighting vehicles, 20 HMMWV vehicles, 16 old American towed M2A1 howitzers of 105 mm caliber, as well as infantry and small arms, ammunition, equipment, etc.
Repair of LKOV Valuk (Pandur I) 6x6 armored personnel carriers from the 10th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Brigade of the Slovenian Army (c) Aljoša Kravanja / www.24ur.comLKOV Valuk (Pandur I) 6x6 wheeled armored personnel carriers from the 10th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Brigade of the Slovenian Army (c) Armed Forces of Slovenia
