스페인 해병대 These are the amphibious armored vehicles that the Spanish Marine Corps wants that the marines already use and the Italian Navy will have.

These are the amphibious armored vehicles that the Spanish Marine Corps wants that the marines already use and the Italian Navy will have.

It offers a "much superior" troop embarkation capacity, with 13 infantry compared to eight for Piranha V. Italy has bought 36 from Iveco and the United States already uses a similar version.

 

 

•  

Iveco Defence Vehicules (IDV), the subsidiary of the Iveco group, has signed a contract to supply the Italian Navy with 36 amphibious armoured vehicles (VBAs) for personnel transport, which will reinforce the fleet of the San Marcos Marine Brigade (BMSM) and increase the National Maritime Projection Capacity of the transalpine country.

The VBA is an 8×8 all-terrain vehicle, capable of being launched and recovered from an amphibious vessel in the open sea and offering at the same time excellent mobility and high-level ballistic, anti-mine and anti-IED protection. It incorporates the turret of OTO Melara's HITFIST OWS weapon station, has been developed to meet the requirements of the new Italian Amphibious Brigade and represents an outstanding advance in the design of armored amphibious vehicles.

Capable of supporting littoral operations beyond Sea State 3 at a maximum speed of six knots, the VBA can carry a mission payload of 10 tons, including an air weapons station mounting a gun of up to 40mm. With exceptional mobility on land and on the water, and air transportability on a C130, the VBA offers an optimal combination of tactical, operational and strategic mobility.

 Iveco Iveco IDV amphibious vehicle

The VBA has an armored volume of 14 m3 and can carry a crew of up to 13 people in a highly protected compartment. The HITFIST OWS is a remotely operated weapons station that incorporates the latest technologies in the fields of electronics, signature, and human-machine interface (MMI) and is best-in-class in terms of lethality, survivability and combat capability. The weapon station is easily installed, without penetration into the hull, on any platform with tracks and wheels and is ready to fire without any preparation.

The main armament consists of the ATK Mk44 30 mm tracked cannon, electrically controlled for lifting, displacement and firing operations. As an option, the main armament can also be completed with the introduction of two side-mounted anti-tank missile launchers. The turret of the weapon station is equipped to receive a secondary armament consisting of a coaxially mounted 7.62 mm machine gun.

The 700 hp FPT Cursor 16 engine, combined with a 7-speed automatic gearbox and an H transmission line, derived from the Centauro and VBM Freccia, provides the VBA with a top road speed of 105 km/h.

The VBA for the Italian Navy is based on the SUPERAV 8×8, the amphibious vehicle platform used for the U.S. Marine Corps (Amphibious Fighting Vehicle) LCA, which is provided in partnership with BAE Systems.

The Spanish Navy is looking for a vehicle of these characteristics as a replacement, in the medium term, of the current amphibious assault vehicles (AAV) and the combat armored vehicles of the Piranha Marine Corps (VCI).

This was expressed in an article published last year in the General Navy Magazine, Lieutenant Colonel Miguel Hernández Suárez-Llanos, who made a detailed analysis of the characteristics of the Marine armored, manufactured by the British BAE Systems.

 Vehicle VBA SuperAV 8x8 The Reason

In fact, the Spanish Navy has shown its interest in this new 8x8 Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV) currently used by the United States Marine Corps (USMC).

"The implementation of the LCA as a future VCI of the mechanized battalion of the Marine Infantry Brigade (Brimar) seems a very reasonable solution, both from the operational and logistical point of view," highlights the lieutenant colonel. The article starts from the premise that the delay in the necessary replacement of the AAVs, currently "frozen", makes this program increasingly close to "another milestone that will be necessary in the medium term: the renewal of the Piranha Infantry Combat Vehicles (VCI), which in 2028 will begin to fulfill the end of their life cycle". And he adds: "Thus, the increasing closeness in time of both needs advises analyzing the possibility of being attended in an integral way."

Advantages of LCA and needs

Hernández explained that the ACV has a mobility and maneuverability (speed, autonomy and slope operation) similar to that of other VCI and a relatively high power, without exceeding too much in weight and dimensions, while offering a "much superior" capacity to embark troops, with 13 infantry compared to the eight that houses vehicles such as the Piranha V. is a multipurpose platform with an open design architecture, capable of carrying a 30 mm tower for reconnaissance versions, such as sapper implements or acting in ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) operations together with unmanned aerial vehicles.

In addition, it makes an estimate on the vehicles needed. "In the absence of a more detailed study, an ACV battalion with four line companies, a reconnaissance section, a sapper section, a health section and the corresponding command elements, ISR (6) and recovery, could comprise between 60 and 65 vehicles, which is not far from the sum of the 19 AAV and 39 Piranha III currently in service, but obtaining a homogeneous and more complete organic structure". And he insists that the unification of the two programs will result in "a higher priority" and "greater efficiency and savings in the long term."

It also focuses on the possible drawbacks of this program. One of them, "the scarce industrial return", since, he points out, the small number of units to be acquired would hardly allow obtaining "a national solution".

Anyway, who if it has a factory in Spain is precisely Iveco, the company that will manufacture the vehicles for the Italian Navy and that could make or assemble them in its factory in Madrid, the old Pegaso.

Therefore, it could be negotiated, he continues, "the realization of some of the manufacturing, assembly and / or maintenance tasks in centers and facilities of Iveco itself in Spain". In addition, the unification of needs would make it possible to implement a larger programme "facilitating negotiations with the companies involved".

Between 350 and 400 million

In principle, LCAs will be available for sale to other countries from 2026, which offers margin, explains the author, to determine this need as a priority and provide it with a budget, which "could be around 350 to 400 million euros, still far from the rest of the main major weapons programs. " This amount is an estimate, the result of assigning an average price per vehicle of around six million euros.

"The new design of the LCA on an 8x8 platform combines the functionalities as an amphibious vector with those of an infantry combat platform, which represents an opportunity for the Marine Corps, which could undertake the resolution of two critical needs in a comprehensive manner in a single program (replacing both the AAV and the Piranha VCI with the new ACVs)", The author concludes by way of summary.

This is the Piranha III of the Marine Corps

Currently the Piranha III is the combat vehicle of Spanish Marine infantry. It is estimated that it has 39 units of this 8x8: 26 infantry combat, 2 command, 1 ambulance, 1 recovery, 1 electronic warfare, 4 sappers and 4 reconnaissance with 30 mm gun. The Piranha IIIC is an armored personnel carrier designed and manufactured by the Swiss company MOWAG (now part of General Dynamics). In Spain, the maintenance of the vehicles acquired is done through Santa Bárbara Sistemas. It weighs 10.5 tons empty (16.5 in combat order) and its propulsion is 8x8, which increases its survivability in case of blowout. It belongs to the latest generation of armored personnel carriers.

The first 18 Piranha III VCI contracted, which were received during the last months of 2003 and the first in 2004 for the first company, included: A Piranha IIIH battalion command vehicle with a KMW mount for 12.70 mm M2 machine gun with AN/TVS-5 night vision equipment, battery of four 66 mm M-246 double smoke launcher tubes, a large transmission equipment of the PR4G range, extendable command post store, specific PC furniture and auxiliary power unit (UAP / APU); a Piranha IIIH company command VCI equipped with a rotating tower, single-seater, armed with a 12.70 mm M2 heavy machine gun, Mk.19 Model 3 40 mm automatic grenade launcher and eight M-246 66 mm smoke launchers, day/night aiming glasses with M-36E1 laser telemetry and seven vision blocks; three section command vehicles (armed with turret with Lag 40 and machine gun); 12 VCI of line to equip the first company (armed with tower with Lag 40 and machine gun). three of which have pre-installation of equipment for sappers. Both the section and line Piranha are identical in their external appearance to the company command, differentiating internally by their equipment in transmissions of the PR4G range.

In November 2007, the Government authorized the purchase of 21 new Piranha IIIC, in a phased manner between 2007 and 2015. Of these, ten line VCI to equip the second company, a command vehicle, a recovery vehicle, four reconnaissance, one electronic warfare and four sappers. The reconnaissance towers are equipped with a Rheinmetall Lance turret, with a 30 mm Mauser gun. The Spanish Piranha have been deployed on international missions in Lebanon, Haiti and the Balkans.