Ricardo PLC, Thailand continue collaboration of new vehicle SHOREHAM-BY-SEA, England, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- Britain's Ricardo PLC and the Defense Technology Institute of Thailand are continuing collaboration on building an 8x8 armored vehicle for the Thai military. The Defense Technology Institute of Thailand is the research and development arm of Thailand's Ministry of Defense and development of the Black Widow Spider is its first major vehicle program. Ricardo and the institute have already completed the initial technology development phase of the project. "Ricardo is proud to have been selected by DTI to partner with it on this key vehicle program," said Andy North, Ricardo chief engineer-defense. This work builds upon our extremely strong reputation for the design, development and production of class-leading, agile and highly crew-protected defense vehicles, including the Foxhound, WMIK and Vixen platforms used by British forces. We look forward to working with DTI on this important program and helping to develop a truly world-class defense vehicle. Neither Ricardo nor the Defense Technology Institute of Thailand provided additional details of the project.