U.S. federal agency picks Roshel to speed up armored vehicle buy

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, a U.S. federal agency, is moving to buy a single armored vehicle from Roshel LLC on a sole-source basis, saying its current fleet of armored trucks has aged to the point where some units date back to 2008 and are becoming too unreliable to drive long distances.

According to a justification document ATF’s Acquisitions Management Division posted on August 31, the agency’s Special Operations Division needs the vehicle, a Roshel Senator Emergency Response Vehicle, for its Special Response Team program. ATF said the purchase is urgent enough to bypass a competitive bidding process because Roshel is the only vendor that can deliver the vehicle within 60 days. A previous contractor ATF considered quoted an 18-month delivery timeline.

Roshel has already put the vehicle in front of the ATF team that would use it. Thomas Vinciguerra said the company’s team supported the ATF at the Summit Point Training Facility, putting a Senator directly in front of Special Response Team personnel for evaluation. He described that hands-on session as running alongside the agency’s brand name justification for the purchase.

The vehicle is built on a Ford F-550 truck chassis and includes a 360-degree rotating enclosed turret, eight gun ports along the sides and rear, modular armor and windows, a heated windshield, and off-road tires rated to keep running after a puncture. It also comes equipped with a hydraulic breaching ram for forcing entry, two vaults for storing explosives, and wiring already run for Starlink satellite internet and mesh radio systems, according to the procurement document. ATF said the vehicle will bring the same general capability as its existing armored fleet, just in a newer, more reliable package.

ATF’s justification says its current vehicles have become expensive to operate simply because of their age. When a mission requires driving one of the older trucks more than a couple of hours, the agency said it often has to pay a freight company to transport the vehicle instead of driving it there directly, due to the mileage and condition of the fleet.

The agency compared Roshel against three other manufacturers listed on the same federal purchasing schedule. Lenco, a well-known armored vehicle maker, could deliver in a similar 18-month window but at a higher cost, according to ATF. The agency said it found no evidence that any federal law enforcement agency currently uses vehicles built by Inkas or Terradyne, and that neither company’s vehicles offer the modular armor and window system ATF wants. ATF also looked at surplus military vehicles available through the Defense Logistics Agency, including Humvees, Peacekeepers and MRAPs, but concluded those platforms are built for military operations rather than law enforcement work.

Roshel is a Canadian company founded in 2016 by CEO Roman Shimonov, and its Senator platform, introduced in 2018, has become one of the most widely fielded light armored vehicles among Western-aligned governments. The company has delivered more than 2,000 Senator vehicles to Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 invasion, supplied similar vehicles to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s federal police and Haiti’s law enforcement agencies, and won U.S. State Department contracts worth $130.6 million in 2024 covering 330 armored vehicles. Roshel opened its first U.S. production facility in Shelby Township, Michigan, in December 2024. ATF’s procurement filing notes that the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department and the FBI already operate Roshel vehicles.

ATF said the single-vehicle purchase also functions as a test, allowing the agency to evaluate the Senator before deciding whether future armored vehicle buys will standardize on Roshel. The period of performance on the contract is set at 60 days from the date of award, and the justification does not disclose the vehicle’s purchase price or specify how many additional units ATF might eventually seek if the evaluation goes well.