The Armed Forces of North Macedonia receives the first batch of the new American-made JLTV armored vehicles.

Defense Blog reported about this.

The first six JLTV armored military off-road vehicles purchased by North Macedonia from the Oshkosh Defense arrived in the country from the United States via the Greek port of Thessaloniki.

Slavjanka Petrovska, Minister of Defence of this Balkan country, shared that in July, the first shipment of six JLTV light armored vehicles arrived at Thessaloniki port in Greece along with 180 Textron M1117 armored vehicles that were donated to Greece by the United States.

“This delivery represents a serious step forward in the process of modernization and equipping of the Army (of North Macedonia – Ed.) according to NATO standards,” Petrovska said.

In total, North Macedonia placed an order for 33 American-made JLTV armored vehicles.

The JLTV armored vehicle was designed as a highly mobile and armored vehicle to replace the HMMWV, which was introduced to the service in the 1980s and lacked the armor protection currently required by the US.

The Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) program aimed to develop a new military off-road vehicle was launched in the 2000s. As a result of it, in August 2015, Oshkosh Corporation’s L-ATV armored vehicle was selected.

On January 25, the American company Oshkosh Defense presented a silent version of the JLTV tactical armored vehicle equipped with a hybrid-electric power plant, which was named eJLTV.

As previously reported, last month, the Ministry of Defense of North Macedonia confirmed the transfer of T-72 tanks to Ukraine.

On Thursday, July 28, a convoy of third-generation T-72 tanks was dispatched to Ukraine. They used to belong to a soon-to-be dissolved battalion.

The decision to transfer Macedonian tanks to Ukraine was reasoned by the eventual obsoletion of these vehicles in a few years.