Tata LPTA

The Indian Army is one of the biggest users of Tatra trucks in the world, with over 10,000 trucks of various types in service. Because of their high-operational flexibility and functional adaptability they formed the backbone of the Army's tactical and mobilisation capability. These trucks were license-produced in India by BEML, a public sector company. Following the Tatra bribery scam, a ban was imposed on Tatra and the supply of these trucks stopped. Thus, the development of multi-axle tactical trucks was started by Tata to meet the Army's requirements.^[8]

The vehicles have a cab over engine modular design. The cab can hold two crew and four passengers. There are two roof hatches for firing, observation and emergency exit. The trucks are equipped with a hydraulic crane for loading/unloading equipment. They come with a central tire inflation system which inflates/deflates tyres according to terrain requirements. For the driver's comfort, the cab is equipped with heat and air conditioning. There is a self recovery winch in the front as well.^[9]

The 6×6 and 8×8 variants are powered by a Cummins ISLe engine developing 375 horsepower, while the 12×12 variant comes with a Cummins ISXe engine with a maximum of 525 horsepower. The 4×4, 6×6, and 8×8 variants are mated to a 10 speed (9F+1R) manual transmission, while the 12×12 variant comes with an automatic transmission.^[6]

In July 2015, Tata won a contract for supplying 1,239 trucks of the 6×6 variant to the Indian Army. In March 2016, an additional order for 619 more trucks was placed. The total order was worth 1300 crores, making it the biggest order to a local private supplier.^[10]

The 8×8 variant has been proposed to be the platform for the upgraded BM-21 Grad MBRL.^[11] The Tata LPTA 5252 12×12 variant has been selected as a transporter erector launcher (TEL) for the Nirbhay/LR-LACM missile,^[12] BrahMos and Prahaar missile.^[11][13]

Around 15,000 trucks of the 4×4 variant are also in service with the Indian Army, all manufactured by the Vehicle Factory Jabalpur.^[14]

In January 2023, several reports confirmed that TATA had exported 92 units of the LPTA 2445 variant to the Royal Moroccan Army via Port Pipavav. The LPTA 2445 is a six-wheel drive military grade truck used for logisitics and munition transport purposes. The Moroccan variant has a 300 HP engine and a transport capacity of 10 tons.^{[15][16][17][18]} It can be also used for missile platform, mounted gun system, communication and radar system, command post, field artillery tractor with crew cabin, crash fire tender, fuel bowser, and HMV^{[clarification needed]} with material handling crane purposes.^[19]