The Metropolitan Police is trialling new ‘Sandcat’ armoured vehicles across London – which are manufactured by Israeli armoured vehicle company Plasan. For more than thirty years, Plasan has supplied these systems to the Israeli military, including around seven hundred ‘Sandcats’ since the beginning of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
A Met spokesperson said the eighteen vehicles it has bought from Plasan will be used to suppress ‘serious public disorder’ and will replace its fleet of ‘Jankel’ armoured cars, according to reports in The New Arab.
Israeli arms companies frequently use the deployment of their weapons in Gaza as a sales tool, boasting that they are ‘battle tested’ after being used against Palestinians.
Most things this vehicle has been designed for cannot be found in London and most challenges London has for vehicles cannot be overcome by such a design. They’re incompatible; all the way down to visibility, agility of the chassis, vulnerability to liquid explosives on hard ground and panels, to even basics like the turning circle.
Is it great in softer, non-urban, open, and wider terrain? Yes. Is London any of these things? Definitely not.
There are vehicles for the job that would make the desired impact. This is definitely not one of them.