According to Emanuel Fabian in the Times of Israel on November 25, the Israeli Defense Ministry announced it has procured 50 armored vehicles for the Israel Defense Force (IDF) to use in its near-nightly raids across the West Bank. Israeli troops have repeatedly come under Palestinian fire during the operations. The Israeli Defense ministry says the Plasan ‘Sand Cat’ vehicles were obtained through an “expedited” order, amid the West Bank operations.
The SandCat is a composite armored vehicle designed by the then Plasan Sasa (now Plasan) of Israel. The SandCat was shown publicly for the first time at AUSA during October 2005. The latest models were shown for the first time at Eurosatory 2018. The SandCat is based on a commercial Ford F Series chassis. They are The SandCat was designed from 2004 and for a variety of applications. It was seen as a potential replacement for the AIL Storm jeeps of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), and for wider use as protected light vehicle capable of performing roles on deployed operations that until the deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan previously been performed by softskin light utility types. Plasan has also stated the design was intended to demonstrate to partner-customer OEMs that the company could take any automotive platform and design an armored hull for it.