Mowag corporation
| Industry | Defense |
|---|---|
| Fate | Acquired by General Dynamics in 2003 |
| Founded | 1950 |
| Founders | Walter Ruf |
| Headquarters | Kreuzlingen, Switzerland |
|
Area served
|
Worldwide |
| Products | |
| Website | www.gdels.com |
Mowag (sometimes MOWAG) is a Swiss company which develops, designs and produces armoured vehicles for military applications in both land-only and amphibious configurations. These vehicles have gross vehicle weights ranging from 9 t to 30 t. More than 12,000 armoured wheeled vehicles of the type Piranha, Eagle and DURO are in operation worldwide with a large number of armed forces. The company is owned by General Dynamics, and is currently known as General Dynamics European Land Systems - Mowag GmbH.
The MOWAG GmbH (Motor Car Factory), originally MOWAG Motorwagenfabrik AG, was founded in 1950 as a privately owned company by engineer, Walter Ruf. During the past 50 years Mowag has concentrated on the development and production of specialised vehicles.
Its initial success was the development and production of more than 1600 troop carriers "Mowag T1 4x4" for the Swiss Army. Contracts for Germany followed, with 750 Mowag MR 8 series armoured wheeled vehicles produced for the German Bundesgrenzschutz (Federal Border Guard) (also later used by Spain), and built under licence in Germany. Further high-powered wheeled and tracked vehicle series were developed and manufactured for the world markets.
MOWAG has built many different types of vehicles, such as ambulances, fire trucks (like the Mowag W300), dummy tanks, electric vehicles, scooters or tracked tanks. In the civilian sector, MOWAG has been particularly active in the construction of firefighting vehicles where several generations of emergency vehicles have been built on the Dodge pickups. Many models were based on factory designed firefighting trucks. In Germany, Mowag was well known for developing a four-wheel drive armored car, that was built under licence from Thyssen and Bussing / Henschel. In 1963, vehicles for the Federal Border Guard (Bundesgrenzschutz = BGS), MOWAG's production ran for decades. MOWAG had from the beginning to the end of the 1960s, built addition military vehicles and civilian trucks. Among them were the heavy trucks, MOWAG M5-16F with four seats, front steering cabin and 16 tons total weight, tow hitch for a double axle trailer and a 200-horsepower engine in the underfloor. The engine was mounted under the bed between the front and the rear axles. This allowed a compact design and low center of gravity in the middle of the vehicle.
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Wikipedia