Piranha III
Piranha III is one of the latest generation of wheeled infantry fighting vehicles developed by the Swiss company Mowag. They are equipped with 20 mm anti-aircraft guns or 90 mm howitzers, depending on the modification. The next "generation" of Piranha 8x8 armored vehicles was created for the Swiss armed forces and, unlike previous projects, with their participation. The main customer wanted to get a car with the best cross-country characteristics. To do this, first of all, they replaced the type of tires and finalized the design of the wheel hubs. Tires of a slightly smaller diameter simultaneously had a relatively large width. New wheels slightly increased the overall width of the car, now this figure was 260 centimeters.
It is worth noting that at first this fact caused claims by the Swiss army - the car went beyond the standard dimensions of wheeled vehicles. However, after trial operation, the military ceased to be indignant and recognized the extra 10-12 centimeters of width as an insufficient reason for refusing to be put into service. Later practice showed that such a slight increase in the width of the combat vehicle is almost not noticeable. New requirements for internal volumes forced MOWAG engineers to increase the length of the machine. From six and a half meters, it has grown to 6.9 m. Thanks to this, the internal usable volume has increased to nine and a half cubic meters.
For the first time in the Piranha family, an armored car received reinforced armor. Own sheets of the armored hull began to withstand the hit of large-caliber armor-piercing bullets, including the KPV machine gun from a distance of up to 300 meters. In the course of further work, it was possible to give the Piranha III the opportunity to use additional booking. As a result of this, the frontal projection of the armored car with hinged panels began to protect the crew and vehicle units from shells of up to 30 mm caliber. The armament complex of new vehicles was originally created according to a modular scheme.
Initially, the Swiss armed forces planned to order more than six hundred Piranha III combat vehicles in various versions from MOWAG. However, later, for reasons of an economic and technical nature, most of the required quantity had to be “closed” with machines of the Piranha II line. The remaining 60 "Piranha III" were made in three versions. This is an armored personnel carrier with a German-made KUKA 606A1 turret armed with a 12.7-mm Browning M2HB machine gun, command and staff vehicles based on armored personnel carriers and anti-tank armored cars armed with M47 Dragon missiles with eight missiles.
The crew of all machines of the "third generation" consists of only two people. Therefore, for example, in the case of an armored personnel carrier, the vehicle commander simultaneously performs the duties of a shooter. The troop compartment of an armored personnel carrier can accommodate up to ten people.
The power plant of the updated Piranhas was made on the basis of diesel engines with a capacity of 350 to 400 horsepower. Depending on the wishes of the customer, armored vehicles can be equipped with engines manufactured by MTU, Scania, Caterpillar, Cummins or Detroit. The engines of the first two companies have the highest power (400 hp) - these are 6V183TE22 and DSJ9-48A, respectively. A significant increase in engine power, installed on the Piranha III, had little effect on speed performance. The previous maximum speed of 100 km / h was more than sufficient, so the engine power "left" to compensate for the increased combat weight and to ensure modernization prospects. The existing engine is sufficient to provide acceptable performance when installing additional armor and / or another combat module. One of the reasons for the increase in combat weight was external additional fuel tanks. With regular refueling, Piranha III can travel up to 750 kilometers on the highway.
Armored car Piranha III was successful not only in technical terms. In 1998, just three years after the start of deliveries to the Swiss army, MOWAG received a lucrative order from Denmark. This country wanted to acquire at least 100-110 armored personnel carriers and 18 command and staff vehicles.
Denmark, under a 1997 contract, acquired 22 Piranha IIIH vehicles (18 in the version of a linear armored personnel carrier, two in a command post vehicle and two in an ARV) manufactured by the Swiss company MOWAG (since 2003, part of the General Dynamics corporation as General Dynamics European Land Systems - Mowag GmbH ), becoming their first customer. The first two Piranha IIIHs were manufactured by MOWAG itself and delivered in 1999, while the remaining 20 were assembled in 2000 by the Danish company Falck-Schmidt in Odense.
The Danish version of the Piranha IIIH was equipped with a German diesel engine MTU 6V182 TE22, a German automatic transmission ZF 7HP600 and an independent hydropneumatic suspension, the armament is represented by a 12.7-mm machine gun Krauss-Maffei-Wegmann 1530 with day and night sights (judging by the photographs, it is saved on cars transferred to Moldova). Most of the service of the Danish Piranha IIIH was part of the Danish contingent of peacekeeping forces in Kosovo. A few years ago, all Danish Piranha IIIHs were transferred to storage, and now the 19 remaining units have been transferred to Moldova through Germany.
From 2002 to 2006, the Danish army also received 115 Piranha III modifications in five versions. The main difference between Piranha IIIC is the use of the American Caterpillar C9 diesel engine and spring suspension. Since 2019, the Danish army has begun the process of replacing Piranha III with new Piranha V armored personnel carriers.
By the middle of the next decade, the order was fully completed. It is noteworthy that in the Danish competition, the Swiss car outperformed several European competitors, including the German armored personnel carrier TPz1 Fuchs. Shortly thereafter, Australia showed its interest in the "third generation", eventually buying several dozen of these machines.
AV II ACSV is a modernized Piranha III. The machine was developed by the Swiss company MOWAG back in the 1970s. In 2010, General Dynamics bought this company, whose armored Piranha for various purposes in the amount of almost 11 thousand pieces dispersed in 20 countries of the world. The hull of the LAV II ACSV is built according to a common anti-mine form - with a narrower bottom and diverging sides at an angle. The thickness of the armor reaches 14.5 millimeters and, together with the anti-mine form, provides a fairly high protection against fragments and small arms. Energy-absorbing seats provide additional protection.
Canadians began to receive LAV II ACSV vehicles in 2020 under a contract that was concluded a year earlier with the American company General Dynamics Land Systems. In total, the Canadian Army has ordered 360 LAV II ACSV units and has not yet received all of them. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to give back, and the army crossed these vehicles off the list of expected deliveries from the United States.
The American version has a 350 horsepower Caterpillar engine coupled to a transmission with seven speeds forward and one reverse. On the roads, the car can move at a maximum speed of 100 kilometers per hour. The cruising range on one gas station is 450 kilometers. The seventeen-ton machine is served by a crew of three people. The armored personnel carrier can take on board seven more servicemen with weapons. The main armament of the armored personnel carrier is the 25 mm M242 automatic cannon. It can fire 175 rounds per minute. The effective firing range is three kilometers, and the maximum is almost seven. 252 shots are placed in the ammunition feed tape.
The cannon is paired with a Belgian 7.62mm C6 machine gun based on the Browning M1918 automatic rifle. John Moses Browning created in 1917. In the version for the armored personnel carrier, only the chamber has been changed. It was adapted for tape feed. The machine gun is reliable and unpretentious, and therefore has been serving for the second century.
On 01 June 2022 Switzerland vetoed a Danish request to supply 20 Piranha III Swiss infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) to Kiev, Reuters reports. At the same time, the Swiss government reminded Denmark of its policy of neutrality. According to the agency, Switzerland requires foreign countries that buy Swiss weapons to seek special permission to re-export them.
In Chisinau on January 12, 2023, the ceremony of handing over to the armed forces of Moldova of the first three Piranha IIIH (8x8) wheeled armored personnel carriers transferred by Germany as military assistance to the European Union on the basis of a bilateral agreement signed in October 2021 took place. The armored personnel carriers themselves come from the presence of the Danish ground forces and are being overhauled and prepared for transfer in Germany. In total, by the end of 2023, under this agreement, 19 former Danish Piranha IIIH armored personnel carriers should be transferred to Moldova.
The total cost of the program financed from EU funds under the 2021 agreement is more than 40 million euros. In addition to 19 former Danish Piranha IIIH armored personnel carriers, Moldova should also receive small arms, communications equipment and small unmanned aerial vehicles under this program. In the Moldovan army, the Piranha IIIH armored personnel carrier will go into service with the 22nd Blue Helmets peacekeeping battalion stationed in Chisinau (Batalionului 22 al Fortelor de Mentinere a Pacii "Calti albastre").
Simultaneously with the promotion of the new armored car on the international market, MOWAG continued to develop new modifications. For example, attempts were made to install a Piranha AMS mortar turret on the Piranha III, but this combat vehicle did not receive much success. Another interesting project based on the third Piranha - ASV-105 - was developed by the Canadian company GMC in a corporation with General Dynamics Land Systems. A 105-mm rifled gun mounted on an automatic remote-controlled system was installed on a standard armored hull. With up to forty rounds of ammunition, such a “wheeled tank” had a fairly low combat weight and could be transported by C-130 transport aircraft. Due to the complexity of creating and operating an automatic installation for a gun, the ASV-105 combat vehicle also remained a prototype.
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