The BRIPAC coincides in Slovakia with the LKOV Valuk, the Slovenian relative of the Spanish BMR

The multinational NATO unit in Slovakia is currently under Spanish command and includes soldiers and vehicles from seven countries.

LKOV Valuk: the Slovenian 'relative' of the Spanish BMR delivered to the Ukrainian Army
From Pontevedra to Lešť: a report on the Spanish soldiers of the BRILAT in Slovakia

In mid-July, the Parachute Brigade "Almogávares" VI (BRIPAC) relieved the BRILAT as the lead unit of the Spanish contingent, which, like the rest of this multinational unit, is based at Camp Slavia, in Lešť, in the Banská Bystrica region.

One of the things that will have caught the attention of the Spanish paratroopers is the presence in this multinational unit of armored vehicles very similar to the Spanish BMRs.

Like the BMR, the vehicles I am referring to are 6X6 traction armoured personnel carriers. Their resemblance to the BMR is not coincidental, as they have the same origin.

This vehicle is called LKOV Valuk and is the Slovenian relative of the Spanish BMR. The Slovenian Army deployed them to Slovakia in July 2022, as its contribution to the aforementioned NATO multinational unit. The Slovenian contingent at Camp Slavia consists of a motorized infantry company equipped with these vehicles, in two versions: transport and ambulance.

I already told you about the LKOV Valuk last year, when it became known that Slovenia gave 20 of its 85 vehicles of this type to Ukraine, as military aid against the Russian invasion.

The LKOV Valuk was produced in Slovenia under licence on the basis of the Pandur I, an armoured vehicle designed in the 1980s by Steyr-Daimler-Puch in Austria. The company responsible for its production in Slovenia was Sistemska Tehnika, based in Ravne na Koroškem. Deliveries of the first Valuks to the Slovenian Army started in 2005.

The Pandur I was based on the BMR thanks to an agreement between the Austrian company Steyr and the Spanish company Santa Bárbara. That is why the Valuk has a similar appearance to the Spanish armoured vehicle.

Sistemska Tehnika manufactured four versions of the Valuk: a troop carrier, an ambulance vehicle, a mortar carrier and a scout vehicle. The latter version was developed in collaboration with the Israeli company Rafael.

The troop transport version of the Valuk is the one seen in these photos. It has three crew members: commander, driver and gunner. In addition, its troop compartment can accommodate six soldiers (the BMR carries two crew members and eight soldiers). The Valuk's troop compartment has three overhead hatches (one on the right side and two on the left).

As on the BMR, the Valuk's engine is housed in the front right-hand side, with the driver seated to the left. The gunner sits behind the driver, operating a well-protected mobile turret (seen on the right in this photo). The commander sits to the right of the gunner (on the left in this photo), with his own hatch, fitted with four periscopes.

The troop version of the Valuk carries two different types of armament in the gunner's turret. The Slovenian Army has deployed both variants in Slovakia. Here we see the version equipped with a 12.7 mm Browning M-2 machine gun.

In this image we can see the version with a Mk-19 automatic grenade launcher, caliber 40 mm.

The Valuk weighs 13.5 tonnes, making it lighter than the Spanish BMR (15.4 tonnes). The Valuk is faster than the BMR (100 km/h top speed, compared to 90 km/h for the Spanish vehicle), but has considerably less range: 700 km compared to 1,000 km for the ENASA vehicle.

It is not easy to find information about the Slovenian unit deployed in Slovakia, although from what I have been able to see, some of the vehicles belong to the 5th Wheeled Combat Vehicle Company of the 157th Logistics Regiment, based in Šentvid.

As for the deployed Slovenian troops, and like some of the vehicles, they belong to the 10th Infantry Regiment "Falcons", based in Ljubljana (below these lines we see soldiers from this unit in a relief of the Slovenian contingent in June 2023). This Regiment was created in 1996 as the 10th International Cooperation Battalion, being the first unit of the Slovenian Army to be formed and armed according to NATO criteria, methods and standards. Slovenia joined the Atlantic Alliance in 2004.

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Photos: NATO Multinational Battlegroup in Slovakia / Slovenska Vojska.