OTT Technologies has received another order for Puma M36 armoured personnel carriers (APCs) from Guinea, which will use them with the United Nations mission in Mali, according to Defenceweb.

Guinea recently ordered 25 new Puma M36 vehicles after operating previous batches for a number of years. The country received 32 Puma M26s in 2014 from OTT under a R78 million deal, followed by 32 Puma M36s in 2018, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s arms transfers database and South African National Conventional Arms Control Committee data.

These Pumas have been used with the UN mission in Mali (Minusma) for several years.

The Pumas join Guinea’s relatively small APC fleet, which includes over a dozen BTR-40s, a dozen BTR-50s, half a dozen BTR-60s, several BTR-152s and a handful of Tigr and Mamba vehicles as well as BRDM-1/2 and AML-90 reconnaissance vehicles.

Guinea has not acquired much new military hardware over the last decade, aside from a couple of WZ-551 APCs from China in 2010; five CSK-131 APCs from China in 2021, and a couple of second-hand BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles in 2005. On the aviation side, it has acquired a single second-hand SA 330 Puma helicopter from France, and two second-hand CN235 transports.

The Puma M36 has proven itself on combat deployments to places like Mali and Somalia. The Puma range has been sold to Guinea, Kenya, Malawi, Niger, Senegal and Burkina Faso. The M36 is an evolutionary development of the proven M26 and weights between 11 and 14 tons depending on the level of protection. It is typically powered by a 220hp (165kW) diesel engine, giving a maximum road speed of 100km/h and a range of around 800km. Depending on customer requirements, the Puma M36 can also be offered with 275, 300, 360 and 450hp Cummins engines with automatic transmissions.