Scrabble?! OFFICIA

Definitions of OFFICIA in various dictionaries:

An official state car is a car used by a government to transport its head of state or head of government in an official capacity, which may also be used occasionally to transport other members of the government or visiting dignitaries from other countries. A few countries bring their own official state car for state visits to other countries, for instance, the United States, Russia and the United Kingdom. It also may serve as an automotive symbol of the head of state and their country. Part of the criteria for an official state car is to have adequate security, capability and stateliness for its duty. A limousine, executive car or sport utility vehicle is usually selected. Due to the high security risk for the passengers, these vehicles are often heavily secured and protected. Vehicles may be armored by the manufacturer or an after-market specialist. (In this article the term "armored car" invariably means a reinforced civilian vehicle, not the military vehicle often so named.) When carrying an important passenger, state vehicles may be surrounded by a motorcade consisting of police or military personnel. The vehicle's driver might also be from the law enforcement or military pool; the driver of the United States Presidential State Car is an experienced agent from the Secret Service, Russian President's driver is a ranking officer of the Federal Protective Service, and the British Prime Minister is driven by a Specialist Protection officer from the Metropolitan Police Service. For state visits and international conferences, the host country usually supplies the ground transportation and security personnel. However, a few countries transport their official state cars to the destination. In countries that have indigenous automobile manufacturers, the government will usually commission one of the national automakers to provide a state car, or allow several to provide cars for an official state fleet. It is considered an honour for a car manufacturer to be selected to provide a state car for their respective country and a demonstration of the confidence of a government in their national industry. For example, the President of the United States currently uses a Cadillac with special undisclosed security features commissioned by the United States government and built by General Motors, with Lincoln, manufactured by Ford Motor Company and Chrysler vehicles having been used in the past, representing the three major American manufacturers. Soviet leaders used the custom-built limousines by the ZiL company, and though the Russian Presidents have switched to the Mercedes-Benz S-Class due to ZiL's decline after the Dissolution of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Putin has commissioned a new official state car from the national automotive establishment, which was delivered in early 2018. The Emperor of Japan uses a Toyota Century, the Prime Minister of Italy uses a Maserati, the Prime Minister of Malaysia uses a Proton Perdana, the President of the Czech ...