Located at booth H11-16, Global Armor will have on display a Ford Armored Ranger and Land Rover Armored Defender.

Global Armor (Thailand) Co. Ltd. is a specialist supplier of a range of high integrity armored products and service solutions. All modified vehicles meet the most stringent quality guidelines and engineering criteria through rigorous audits of design, engineering, and manufacturing.

We look forward in meeting with you at the show.

For further information, please contact marketing@rmagroup.net

The 9^th Dubai International Humanitarian Aid & Development Conference & Exhibition (DIHAD) will take place from 1-3 April 2012 at Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Global Fleet Sales (GFS) & Guava International will use its participation at this year’s event to highlight its ‘Total Fleet Management Solutions’ offerings.

Located at booth 408 – 415, GFS and Guava International will have three aid support vehicles on display.

Global Fleet Sales

GFS is the authorized global distributor of Ford Motor Company products to the Aid & Development market worldwide. GFS is one of the world’s largest Ford distributors providing critical vehicle sales, after-sales support and comprehensive fleet solutions in developing countries and post-conflict markets.

Guava International

Land Rover’s distributor of choice, managing markets on their behalf in more than 60 markets worldwide.  Guava International is Land Rover’s sole authorized Aid & Development sales partner globally, delivering Land Rover products and services to aid sectors including government and non-government organizations as well as providing fleet solutions for organizations involved in projects across the developing world.

We look forward in meeting with you at the show located at booth 408 – 415.

For further information, please contact marketing@rmagroup.net

A New IFRC Contract Approach

The new contract approach is to manage the maintenance and repair of more than 400 vehicles over three years, and is the first contract of its kind awarded by the IFRC. The fleet is made up of multiple brands and vehicle types, including Toyota, Land Rover, Ford, all types of SUVs, Trucks and Motorcycles.

RMA is responsible for all staff management, workshop equipment and inventories, as well as the delivery and distribution of parts and equipment. Importantly, RMA Group will also provide all necessary after service and support.

A Fully Integrated Service and Support Approach

A highly functional, integrated RMA Group project team has been established that consists of professional teams from Contract Services, RMA Parts, Service & Purchasing; Logistics; Human Resources; Legal and Corporate Affairs.

The operation will be managed under the RMA Contract Services Division.

Setting up such a project in a remote and troubled location is a complicated challenge and RMA applies all the logistics, operating skills, experience, and dedication to provide every essential service needed for total, reliable fleet management.

RMA is the leader in Aid sector response and support.;

Representatives from across the defense community had the opportunity to view, firsthand, the Ford Ranger J97 LTV Police variant currently in use by the Afghanistan National Security Forces (ANSF). This variant, which is also the most commonly used vehicle within the ANSF, provides the ANSF with key maneuver capabilities and is critical to expediting the strategic drawdown of U.S. Combat Forces from Afghanistan by 2014.

In 2005 the Combined Security Transition Command — Afghanistan (CSTC-A) began equipping the ANSF with the Ford Ranger LTV to enhance their tactical capabilities and assist their ability to secure and stabilize Afghanistan. The ANSF includes the Afghan National Police (ANP) and the Afghan National Army (ANA) — both branches heavily utilize the LTVs to carry out their mission of security and peacekeeping. The LTV fleet is comprised of four variants —- the cargo, mobile maintenance, police, and tactical ambulance vehicles. The Ford Ranger J97 light pick up cargo truck is the base vehicle of the ANSF vehicle fleet. To date, over 31,000 LTVs have been fielded to the ANA and ANP. An additional 10,000 are scheduled to be fielded by 2012. “At nearly 26,000 vehicles, the police variant is the highest density vehicle in the ANSF fleet,” said Lt. Col. Graham Compton, PD NSV. “This variant is solely used by the ANP, while the cargo vehicle variant is used solely by the ANA.” The remaining two variants, the ambulance and mobile maintenance vehicles, are utilized by both the ANP and ANA. “Based on feedback from the field, the Ford Ranger LTV has been a dependable workhorse for the ANSF,” said Compton. “It is probably the most reliable and important asset to the ANSF, meeting the essential equipment needs to strengthen the capacity of Afghanistan’s security forces enabling them to take lead responsibility for Afghanistan’s future.” The LTVs are commercially acquired through an authorized dealer of Ford, Global Fleet Sales (GFS). GFS is responsible for the integration of 31 modifications to the vehicles, equipping the fleet to effectively fulfill their mission and operate in an austere environment. Some of the modifications include the addition of provisions to carry and store weapons, a heavy duty suspension package to increase mobility, and a robust vehicle collision protection package to improve winch and towing capabilities. The integration of an environmental package assures cold start operations in extremely low temperatures. The combination of the these integrations along with the extended range fuel tank and the severe off-road package gives the ANA and ANP the ability to stay in contact and protect citizens located in areas difficult for basic commercial vehicles to navigate through. In April 2011, the Army’s PEO CS&CSS established the PD NSV with the mission to provide life cycle management of non-standard commercial light tactical, medium tactical, sport utility, and bus vehicle fleets for the ANSF. PD NSV’s mission is a critical component of U.S. combat forces’ overall transition plan. “The ANSF lacked the logistical infrastructure, trained maintainers, and supply parts needed to effectively sustain the high density vehicle fleet,” said Col. William Boruff, Project Manager for Joint Combat Support Systems (PM JCSS). “It was at this point when the Army tasked us to develop cradle to grave life-cycle management to provide the ANSF with the capacity to be self-sustaining and independently conduct security operation missions.” Specifically, PD NSV supports future fleet acquisition requirements and validates total fleet requirements in country. They develop and provide training manuals and facilitate training for the ANSF. They also manage competitive contract buys for new vehicle fleets and spare parts, and conduct baseline testing of the ANSF LTV fleet. “The stand up of this organization shows the responsiveness of the acquisition community and leadership to the Warfighter’s needs. Within a month of notification, the organization was chartered, resourced, and began providing vital program management support to the ANSF. We have made numerous trips to the Area of Responsibility (AOR), been integrated into the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) teams and processes, and have provided timely and responsive results to meet Warfighter’s needs,” said Compton. In January of 2012, PD NSV will begin testing two Police LTVs at Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz. in an effort to capture performance and reliability data. Results will help to improve the technical specifications for future acquisitions of similar vehicles. While the primary vehicle for the ANA and ANP is the Ford Ranger LTV, other vehicles such as Navistar’s 7000 series Medium Tactical Vehicle (MTVs), the Ford Everest Sport Utility Vehicles (SUV), and Blue Bird and Navistar Buses are also being supplied to the ANSF. Afghanistan’s terrain and environment necessitates the use of a diverse fleet of vehicles. This diversity of vehicles and accompanying maintenance and management issues clearly warrants the need to educate, equip, and sustain the ANSF’s ability to manage and maintain their diverse fleet long after U.S. combat forces withdraw from Afghanistan. PD NSV falls under the leadership of PM JCSS, which is part of the PEO CS&CSS. PEO CS&CSS directs and coordinates the efforts of four Project and 18 Product Managers in managing more than 350+ Army systems, including several Joint Service programs, across all phases of their life cycle. Our aim is to equip our Joint Warfighters with the world’s best capability — today and tomorrow — using the Department of Defense’s best acquisition workforce.

In 2012, RMA Automotive will launch its new range of Mine Site vehicles at the Mining Indaba  in Cape Town, South Africa.

Mining Indaba has hosted the annual event for nearly 20 years. This professional three-and-a-half-day conference has developed into Africa’s largest, most-significant mining event. It offers a comprehensive schedule of presentations, panels and plenary sessions.

Mining Indaba attracts mining analysts, fund managers, investment specialists and financiers from around the world. In 2011, sponsoring companies represented an estimated collective market value of $1 trillion. It is held annually at the Cape Town International Convention Centre in Cape Town, South Africa and is organized by Mining Indaba LLC.

We look forward in meeting with you at the show on 6-9th February 2012, South Africa.

For further information, please contact marketing@rmagroup.net

LAEM CHABANG, Thailand (AP) — The humble pickup truck has plowed through the desert sands of Libya in pursuit of Moammar Gadhafi’s forces and patrols the high passes of Afghanistan. Tough, multitasking and relatively cheap, it’s the choice of Latin American armies, al-Qaida terrorists, Somali warlords and even U.S. Special Forces trying to blend in with the locals.

Of course, most don’t just pick one off the lot and drive to the battlefield. They modify them in back-alley workshops to become lethal and more durable. Or they come here, to a busy, sprawling plant that turns out military-style modifications by the thousands.

Pairing sophisticated computer modeling with skilled workers, many from poor families in the surrounding countryside, the RMA Group has supplied 35,000 such road warriors, mostly Ford Rangers, to the Afghanistan police and army under a U.S. military contract, with more on their way.

Other apparently satisfied customers of the Thailand-based American company range from U.N. peacekeepers to private individuals seeking bullet-free rides. Singapore’s military recently bought 1,000 converted SUVs.

“We take a commercial vehicle off the shelf, the price of which is generally low, and then adapt that to exactly what the customer wants and needs. We focus on rough-tough, conflict and post-conflict markets,” says Ron Tyack, a group vice president. He recently took reporters through the factory, 150 kilometers (93 miles) southeast of the Thai capital Bangkok.

At one station stood a tested Ford Everest, seven of its windows shattered but not penetrated by 27 AK-47 bullets.

“There is no second chance to ‘get it right’ when it comes to shielding your vehicle from hostile fire,” notes an RMA brochure. Muscled up with steel, composite materials and ballistic glass, such pickups are meant to stop fire from handguns, rifles like the AK-47 and grenade shrapnel.

The converted Rangers for Afghan forces average $25,000 apiece compared to some $100,000 for a Humvee, the equivalent U.S. military workhorse, says Tyack, an Australian with more than 40 years of automotive experience. Spare parts for pickups generally are also cheaper and easier to obtain — all reasons for their popularity among guerrillas, rebels and armies on a shoestring budget.

“The ANP (Afghan National Police) has conducted a lot of successful operations using Ford Ranger pickups in remote cities and districts. (They’re) strong, work very well in difficult terrain and on dirt roads,” says Mohammad Najib Nikzad, an Afghanistan government spokesman. But he said Toyota pickups were cheaper and their higher speed made it easier to pursue suspects in cities.

In Afghanistan and Iraq, U.S. Special Forces teams sometimes board unmarked pickups to avoid detection. U.N. peacekeepers in Kosovo, Haiti and elsewhere ride in pickups emblazoned with U.N. markings. RMA has a five-year contract with the world body to provide the vehicles.

On Libya’s front lines recently, field commander Abdel-Razak Najim told The Associated Press his revolutionary fighters preferred Toyota but added that the more robust Ford was “a big car and has good balance so we attach rocket launchers on them because they can handle the force.” Virtually all the battlefield pickups in Libya are locally modified.

The Toyota Hilux, designed for backwoods recreation and hauling goods to market, has been a special favorite of irregular forces since its introduction in the late 1960s. The defeat in 1987 of Gadhafi’s forces by the highly mobile troops of Chad was dubbed the “Toyota War.”

The RMA Group, which started modestly in 1985 and expects $770 million in revenue this year, also works on models from Toyota for the mining industry as well as Land Rover but has its strongest links with the Ford Mazda Motor Company, a joint venture of the two automakers that produces the Rangers just 30 kilometers (18 miles) away. Thailand has become a major Asian hub for foreign car manufacturing and export, turning out about 1.8 million a year. It’s also the world’s second-largest market for pickups, after the United States.

When the U.S. military sought bids for light tactical vehicles, Ford didn’t have a ready product that met the specifications and didn’t want to get into the modification business. RMA got a major boost when it stepped in, delivering the first one to Afghanistan in 2005.

Tyack says that detailed groundwork is done on customer requirements and the invariably punishing environments in which the vehicles will operate.

For Afghanistan, the dark green Rangers need heater blocks to withstand temperatures that can plunge to minus 30 degrees Centigrade (minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit), higher ground clearance given the rock-strewn roads and better suspension to take heavy loads (Tyack recalls seeing one carry a baby camel). Better filters are needed since fuel in Afghanistan is usually high in sulfur content. Standard tires are replaced by virtually puncture-proof, non-radial ones.

“You don’t want to be on patrol and suddenly find you have a flat tire,” he says. You also don’t want to be hit with a roadside bomb because most of the Rangers are not armored, given the high cost of such conversions.

The plant also can come up with more than 100 adaptations beside the battlefield versions.

A Land Rover Defender at the plant had been turned into a field ambulance. In 2008, on urgent request from the Vietnamese government, the plant configured vehicles for workers investigating the possible outbreak of Asian bird flu, providing separate driver and health worker compartments and isolated storage for hazardous specimens.

Elsewhere at the factory, pickups geared for working in mines, sometimes underground, were readied for shipment after being beefed up with extra protection against falling rocks and rollovers. Customers include gold mines in South Africa and the Freeport mine, one of the world’s largest, in Indonesia’s Papua province. With an ongoing separatist insurgency in the latter nation, some of the pickups destined for Freeport are armored.

Quality control testing is done on factory grounds, with the vehicles driven through a ford, under a shower, around a steeply sloped curve, over a patch of rock-strewn road and into a deep freezer.

One piece of equipment — a machine gun — doesn’t get bolted on until the truck reaches Afghanistan. The company is not in the weapons business.

Tyack says RMA, with 1,600 of its 4,000 employees in Afghanistan, sees itself as part of the transition from U.S. to Afghan security control, providing not only the hardware but servicing and training. Since up to 5,000 of its road warriors will need to be replaced every year, it may well be around after the last American troops have gone home.

___

Associated Press writers Rami al-Shaheibi in Libya and Deb Riechmann in Kabul contributed to this report.

AidEx will attract thousands of visitors and over 300 exhibitors from UK, Europe, US, India and the special African contingent.

Apart from the All-New Ranger, GFS will also launch the 2012 Ford Transit Ambulance at this exhibition.

For further information, please contact: marketing@rmagroup.net

Since 2007 GFS South Africa has been serving industry with specialized automotive products and services including modified vehicles and customized fleets to meet industry needs, particularly for the mining and extraction industries. Fleet sales and total fleet contract management services that include all aspects of fleet management, maintenance and operation have also punctuated the company’s South Africa business.

RMA Automotive is a world leader in vehicle modification, fleet development and composition solutions and provides comprehensive service, support and logistsics systems that support those fleets anywhere. RMA Automotive are known for innovative vehicular design and engineering; precision, high-volume manufacturing; harsh testing and standards-compliant methodologies that result in products that consistently meet and exceed customer requirements.

RMA Automotive typically serve mining and industrial clients; aid & development missions; telecommunications; utility and security companies. RMA Automotive hold contracts with NGOs, governments, and military customers.

RMA Group is present in six regions and territories, in over 40 markets. RMA Automotive conversion and assembly facilities are located in Thailand, Indonesia, Turkey, as well as South Africa.

Consistent with this worldwide corporate profile, RMA Automotive South Africa rightfully aligns itself in name with the RMA Group Automotive Division. It will continue the RMA Automotive tradition of Innovation, Integrity, and Endurance in product, service, and customer relationships.

The competition was held to help the Ford sales consultants to alleviate their technical proficiency and to share best practices, ensuring that Ford Motor Company provides the best customer experience.

The competition is designed to test the sales staff’s customer service skills, their ability to match the right vehicle to the the customer need, and product presentation skills.

The contestants for this regional competition were selected from the region’s best performing Ford dealers. The regional winner will walk away with USD2,000 and the opportunity to participate in the World Championship in Detroit where other winners from the Ford Middle East, Caribbean/Central America, Sub-Sahara/Africa, and the Asia Pacific Region will compete for the world title.

The results from the Asia Pacific challenge were, Mr. Eun Pyo Son from Sunin Motor, South Korea walked away with first place followed by Mr. Channimul Thy from RMA Ford Cambodia Dealer in second place, Mr. Clement Yap from Regent Motors Singapore and Mr. Myeong Hun Kim from Sunin Motor, South Korea both grabbing the third place.

For further information, please contact: marketing@rmagroup.net.

The RMA Group Chairman’s Award is part of the company’s effort to develop as an integrated entity where individual business units are working towards a common goal and to achieve success across the group. We believe that the whole is bigger than the sum of the parts and that the RMA Group is unique in our areas of business and markets in which we are present.

The employees were chosen from numerous departments within the company based on their above expectation performance, outstanding work ethic and excellent results.

The winners are: Andrew Jones & Tanya Kongrit from Purchasing Department, Biju Narayanan & Sasi Devan from After Sales Department, Michael Freeman & Stanley Chan from Product Development Department (Automotive), Benjamin Beroud from Sales Department (Automotive), Nary Sok & Arif Malyar from Logistics Department, Alex Brenneisen from Corporate Affairs Department, Olivier Gaiemet from Heavy Equipment Division, Thin Thin Khine from Power Equipment Division, Zabiullah Bigzad from Finance Department and Alex Konnaris, Chatchawan Jirupathum, Chakrapun Jatuporntanat, Visitsak Chaosuanklau, Piyawat Prangsuwan, Akarnut Palawat, Natchapong Potiburee, Seubpong Chaichan, Jonathan Duffield, Penpan Luksamiwanit, Narong Chalermwong, Supatchai Kaseadtaweesup, Charles Hitchcock, Prasert Jaipet, Wannapong Pinrat, Pannipa Atchaapiruk from Group IT Management Department.

For further information, please contact: marketing@rmagroup.net.