[6] During the early 1970s, the South African Defence Force issued a requirement for a wheeled infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) capable of deploying troops rapidly across the vast expanses of southern Africa.
[11] The company had prior experience producing armoured vehicles under licence during the early stages of World War II and the immediate postwar era, when it was known as SA La Brugeoise et Nivelles.
[11] The parent firm wanted the SIBMAS series to include a family of supporting vehicles built on the same chassis and hull to simplify logistics for potential export clients.
[12] For instance, Jane's Defence Weekly initially speculated that the Ratel and SIBMAS were the same vehicle, and that South Africa had worked in concert with the Belgian contractor to oversee its development.
[13] In 1979, the Malaysian Army embarked on a massive modernisation programme known as Perkembangan Istimewa Angkatan Tentera (PERISTA), intended to increase the firepower and mobility of its mechanized forces in light of the ongoing communist insurgency and the growing threat of a regional conflict between Thailand and Vietnam.
[15] The need for a dedicated IFV to permit Malaysian infantrymen to fight mounted in addition to providing direct fire support through its integral weapons systems was identified as early as 1977.
[15] Beginning in 1979, the Malaysian Army trialled several wheeled IFV designs from defence contractors in the US, Brazil, and Europe, including one of the two amphibious SIBMAS prototypes.
[16] The evaluation process was beset by numerous delays, since the army's procurement officials initially failed to specify any additional technical requirements for its future IFV programme.
[17] When the army finally came up with a series of specific technical requirements, for example a maximum road range of 1,000 kilometres and a combat weight of 12 tonnes, it altered them without notifying the contractors.
[19] Malaysia was also vilified by international and domestic anti-apartheid movements for its acquisition of the SIBMAS, which they suspected erroneously to have been licensed to South Africa as the Ratel in violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 418.
[19] The Malaysian Royal Armoured Corps was skeptical of the need for a wheeled fire support vehicle attached to the mechanized infantry, which it criticised as a poor substitute for the acquisition of main battle tanks.
[19] The Brazilian Engesa EE-11 Urutu was seen by some of the procurement staff as a more suitable candidate for the army's needs, albeit modified for the IFV and fire support role: it was considerably cheaper than the SIBMAS, it had been combat tested in the Iran–Iraq War and had been in uninterrupted production for several years, and could meet the weight requirements.
[15] These were deployed in counter-insurgency operations essentially as stopper groups, with their crews using the mobility of their vehicles to encircle guerrilla positions and cut off escape routes while the infantry debarked to engage the enemy.
[15] Along with fire support variants of the V-150, which Malaysia had acquired in 1977, the SIBMAS essentially replaced the AML and Ferret in the role of an armoured car attached to infantry formations.
[22] The collapse of the domestic communist insurgency, coupled with the subsequent end of the Cold War and decline in regional tensions, resulted in major cuts to Malaysian defence spending.
[23] In April 2016, the Malaysian government announced it would be looking into an extensive upgrade programme for its SIBMAS fleet, indicating the vehicle would remain in service for the foreseeable future.
[26] The long, box-shaped SIBMAS hull is of all-welded steel construction and provides the crew with protection from small arms fire and artillery fragments.
[3] It could also be fitted with night vision sights, a nuclear biological and chemical (NBC) protection suite, an electrical air conditioning system, heater, and a winch.