Tata confirms Moroccan 8×8 production agreement

A WhAP in service with India's Central Reserve Police Force in Kashmir, in August 2023. (Firdous Nazir /Eyepix Group/Future Publishing via Getty Images)

Indian company Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) announced on 30 September that it has signed a deal with Morocco covering the local production of its 8×8 Wheeled Armoured Platform (WhAP).

“This marks a significant milestone as we expand our footprint overseas as a defence OEM [original equipment manufacturer],” it said in a post on X (formerly Twitter), without providing any further details of the deal.

Morocco's official news agency Maghreb Arabe Presse (MAP) reported on 27 September that the kingdom's National Defense Administration and TASL had entered into a strategic partnership aimed at the local production of the WhAP at a plant that will be called Tata Advance Systems Maroc (TASM). Citing a statement from the National Defense Administration, MAP said the project would be carried out within three years and will initially have a local integration rate of 35%, which will increase to 50%, creating 90 jobs directly and 250 indirectly.

It added that the agreement was part of a wider plan to modernise the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces (FAR) and develop its defence industry in order to increase its self-sufficiency and make it an emerging regional player.

India's Economic Times reported on 28 September that a WhAP production line would be established in Casablanca within a year and will eventually be able to make 100 vehicles annually. The vehicles will initially be for the FAR but there are plans to market the WhAP to other African countries.