Daimler Truck has entered into a partnership with Arquus, a company of the Belgian John Cockerill group, to win a contract for 6,000 trucks awarded by the French Ministry of Defense. The vehicles will be produced and supplied for more than 10 years.
The specifications specified, among other things, a loading capacity of 6 tons (hence the official name PL6T for Porteurs Logistiques 6 Tonnes) for this versatile tactical truck designed for military operations. In keeping with the vehicle concept used by the French land forces for decades, the cabin is located behind the front axle. For obvious reasons of tactical and strategic mobility, but also to allow the vehicle to be transported by plane and train, it had to have a low overall height.
All Zetros will be three-axle transport vehicles, but there will be numerous variants: troop carriers, transport vehicles, shelter vehicles, variants equipped with cranes and trucks with winches. They will all be equipped with the Mercedes-Benz OM 460 engine with Euro 3 certification (which can operate even on poor-quality fuels) and a torque converter automatic transmission. The militarization of the vehicles, including the integration of the systems and the armoring of the cabs, will be carried out by Arquus’ French branches in Limoges, Garchizy and Saint-Nazaire. Arquus will also provide fleet maintenance and assistance, with logistics support from Daimler Truck for spare parts and basic mechanical know-how.
