Piranha 8x8
By the end of the seventies, the Piranha family was replenished with another project, this time an eight-wheeled vehicle. The Piranha 8x8 armored car was supposed to expand the family and thereby attract new customers who, for one reason or another, did not fit the 4x4 and 6x6 options. It is noteworthy that in the future the eight-wheeled "Piranha" became the most popular model of MOWAG armored cars and now it is rightfully considered a separate line that unites a fairly large number of armored vehicles. Due to the great success of the eight-wheeled platform, there has been a noticeable nomenclature change. Previously, armored cars received numbers in accordance with the order of the start of the project. Thus, the 8x8 armored car received the alternative name Piranha III. However, in the future, on the basis of the original Troika, so many different modifications were created that for convenience they began to designate it as Piranha I. Currently, the number five already appears in the number indexes of the Piranha 8x8 line.
Piranha II 8x8
Initially, the project of a four-axle armored car was a further development of the ideology laid down in the Piranha 4x4. At the same time, the look required some design changes. All of them, first of all, concerned the new chassis with a large number of wheels to which it was necessary to transfer power. At the same time, the general layout of the hull remained the same - the engine is in front of the right, the driver is to the left of it, and the troop compartment is behind the engine and the driver. The engine also remains the same - a Detroit V653T diesel with 275 hp. Despite the increase in combat weight by a couple of tons compared to the six-wheeled version, the Piranha-3 retained its basic running characteristics. The maximum speed on the highway and on the water remained the same - 100 and 10 km / h, respectively. One of the methods of ensuring the "unification" of characteristics became restrictions on the parameters of the engine operation: the three-axle Piranha, in contrast to the eight-wheeled one, did not use its potential to the full. The Piranha 8x8 transmission, with the exception of the appropriate modifications, was similar to the units of the previous model. The same can be said for the suspension. The wheels of the first two axles had spring damping, the rest - torsion bar.
Piranha III 8x8
The level of protection of the armored hull remains the same. Plates up to 10 millimeters thick were stopped by 7.62 mm bullets, including armor-piercing ones. The armament complex was originally planned to be flexible and changeable in accordance with the customer's requirements. The prototype was equipped with a remotely controlled turret with an Oerlikon automatic cannon of 20 mm caliber. In addition, in the rear of the hull of the first prototype of the Piranha 8x8, a seat was provided for another remote-controlled system with a rifle-caliber machine gun. Already during the tests of the prototype, it turned out that the second turret did not give the proper increase in firepower, but significantly complicates the design. Therefore, all serial "Piranhas" of various modifications were equipped with only one turret or a remotely controlled installation. Like the previous Piranha models, the eight-wheeled armored car had four ball mounts in the sides of the troop compartment for firing personal weapons. Two more such units were provided in the aft doors. Through these doors, the landing and disembarkation of an assault force of six people was carried out. The reduction in the number of soldiers transported was caused by the need to place the lower part of the turret with an automatic cannon. In addition, some of the internal volumes were reserved for the future, in case of a change in the complex of weapons. As it turned out later, this was not done in vain. The vehicle's own crew of three (driver, commander and gunner) had their own observation devices, but the landing hatches were only above the commander and driver's workplaces. The shooter had to get into the car and leave it through the aft doors along with the landing party.
Piranha IV 8x8
Like the six-wheeled version, the Piranha 8x8 was developed primarily for the Swiss army. However, the country's military leadership turned its attention to the MOWAG project only in the mid-eighties. The first buyers of these armored vehicles were the Chilean armed forces. Again, a production license was acquired, according to which about fifty combat vehicles were assembled at the FAMAE factories in the original configuration, as well as in the versions of an ambulance and an anti-tank gun carrier.
At the very beginning of the eighties, MOWAG was negotiating with Canada for the supply of finished machines or the sale of a license for their production. The Canadian manufacturer was supposed to be GMC (General Motors Canada), to which part of the documentation was transferred. For a number of reasons, the official Ottawa was in no hurry with the order, but the GMC management expressed its readiness to expand the production of Piranha 8x8, of course, subject to the availability of customers. It is unlikely that at that time anyone guessed what the consequences would be of these statements. Perhaps it was the agreement between MOWAG and GMC, as well as the intentions of the latter, that made the ancestor of a full-fledged family of armored vehicles out of a simple armored personnel carrier. However, this time the great future was not associated with the Canadian army.
Piranha V 8x8
LAV: "Piranhas" for the USA
Around this time, the United States Marine Corps command began the LAV (Light Armored Vehicle) program. The goal of the program was to create and / or purchase a large number of new combat vehicles suitable for use in the marines, in particular, for the implementation of amphibious assault. The technical task of the competition was rather vague and ambiguous, especially in terms of weapons and the level of protection. Due to some circumstances, the drafters of the requirements gave the competing firms a wide "scope" in the choice of these parameters. More or less clear were only the points of the terms of reference concerning the running characteristics. The Marines wanted a car that was fast on land and floated on water. In addition, the dimensions and weight of the finished product were supposed to ensure transportability by CH-53 helicopters and C-130 aircraft.
Two dozen applications were submitted for the competition, but only four projects reached the final stage of document comparison, including the Piranha 8x8 presented by GMC. Due to the lack of clarity of the competition task, both tracked and wheeled vehicles took part in the competition. In addition, their armament varied significantly. In the fall of 1982, Piranha was declared the winner of the LAV program. After such a decision of the competition committee, a scandal almost happened. Representatives of the Cadillac company accused the commission and GMC of conspiracy and cited the cheapness of their V-150 armored car as proof. However, the military eventually replied that in this case, the main factor influencing the choice is not the price, but the fighting qualities. Cadillac V-150 won in price (about 400 thousand dollars apiece against half a million for each "Piranha"), but had the worst characteristics, first of all, protection and weapons. Thus, a Swiss-Canadian project became the winner of the LAV program.
LAV-25
The original plan of the Marine Corps involved the purchase of about a thousand of these machines in various configurations, but later it was cut by about 200 units. The most numerous version of the "Piranha 8x8" for the Marine Corps was the car, named LAV-25 by the name of the competition. The hull, power plant and chassis have not undergone any changes. The Canadian designers were required to install a new gun turret on the existing vehicle. In a two-seater swivel unit, an automatic gun of 25 mm caliber was placed (hence the number in the name of the machine) M242 Chain Gun with 210 rounds of ammunition and a coaxial machine gun of a rifle caliber with 400 rounds. Guidance in the horizontal plane was carried out in a circle, and vertically within the range from -10 to +60 degrees from the horizontal. LAV-25 also received two four-barreled smoke grenade launchers on the turret. It is noteworthy that the armament complex of the "Light armored vehicle" had a certain potential for improvement. So, inside the hull there was enough space for installing a new combat module or for stowing additional ammunition to the old one. In the second case, it was 420 shells and 1200 rounds. If necessary, in the same volumes, it was possible to place boxes for the ammunition of the transported fighters. "Diving" into the car, the landing could use additional magazines for M16 rifles of all modifications with a total volume of four thousand rounds. Finally, there were mounts on the turret roof for mounting the M2HB heavy machine gun.
In production terms, the LAV-25 project was a real commonwealth of states. The armament and turret were manufactured in the USA, after which they were sent to Canada, where they were installed on finished hulls. In addition, some cars from the first batches then returned to the States, to the Arrowpoint plant, which installed and tested communication and weapon control systems. By 1984, such an "armored community" served as the basis for the formation of LAV battalions in the ILC divisions, one in each. New units received one and a half hundred vehicles. Having an automatic cannon, the LAV-25 still remained armored personnel carriers. To provide full-fledged fire support for the Marine Corps, the 25-mm cannon was insufficient. For this reason, on the basis of the same Piranha 8x8, they tried to create armored cars with more powerful weapons.
LAV-105 or LAV-AG (LAV Anti-Ground - LAV To combat ground targets)
Let's start with the LAV-105 or LAV-AG (LAV Anti-Ground - LAV To combat ground targets). As is clear from the description of the base vehicle for the Marine Corps, the numbers "105" mean the caliber of the gun. Initially, 76 and 90 mm guns were considered as weapons for the support vehicle. However, calculations have shown their low efficiency. After a short search, the 105 mm EX35 cannon developed by Benet Laboratories was chosen as the most effective weapon, while having a relatively low mass. The development of a new turret for a large-caliber cannon was entrusted to Cadillac. In addition to the cannon, a coaxial machine gun was placed in the two-seater fighting compartment. The vertical aiming angles of the weapon were in the range from -8 to +15 degrees, as on tanks. Another feature that the LAV-105 inherited from the tanks was the weapons control system. To reduce the cost of development and production, it was maximally unified with the equipment of the M1 Abrams tank. However, unlike the same "Abrams", the LAV-105 combat vehicle received an automatic loader, which made it possible to fire up to ten rounds per minute. On fire tests, the new "wheeled tank" showed excellent results: the so-called typical moving target - it imitated the Soviet BMP-1 - was hit from the first shot. First of all, this fact spoke about the good work of the ballistic computer and related equipment.
According to plans for the LAV-105, the first vehicles of this model were supposed to go to the troops in 1994. However, funding difficulties made it possible to make only one prototype, and even that one was converted from a serial LAV-25 armored personnel carrier. In 1991, the LAV-105 project was suspended and then closed. A few years later, the Cadillac company, using its developments on the tower, tried to promote its own version of the LAV-105 in the Middle East, but did not achieve much success in this. The Cadillac project was canceled after testing three prototypes.
Much more successful was a coherent version of the Piranha 8x8 for the Marine Corps called LAV-C. It differs from the base vehicle in the absence of a turret and several antennas on the roof of the hull. In addition, the former airborne squad, in which radio equipment was installed, has undergone minor changes. LAV-C vehicles are attached to all battalions equipped with the LAV-25.
One of the reasons for the closure of the LAV-105 project was the lack of the need for another anti-tank vehicle. The fact is that the beginning of work on the installation of a tank gun on the Piranha chassis began around the time when the Marines received the first LAV-AT armored vehicles (LAV Anti-Tank - Anti-tank LAV). They differed from the original LAV-25 in the turret. Instead of a unit with a cannon and machine guns, an Emerson TUA combat module with two BGM-71 TOW anti-tank missile launchers was installed on the body of an eight-wheeled armored car. Inside the hull was an ammunition load of 14 missiles. The launchers were reloaded manually through a hatch behind the TUA turret. For self-defense, the vehicle was equipped with an M240 machine gun. Each battalion has 16 anti-tank versions of the LAV.
LAV-AD (Air Defense - LAV for air defense)
Since the late eighties, the LAV-AD complex (Air Defense - LAV for air defense) has been developed. In the course of work, the composition of equipment and weapons was repeatedly changed. At a certain stage, it was even proposed to equip the LAV-AD with Hydra 70 unguided missiles to combat helicopters. However, in the end, the LAV-25 armored car with the Blaser turret installed on it came out for the last tests. The two-man tower served as a support for the Stinger missile launcher unit, as well as the 25-mm M242 cannon. Interestingly, four vehicles with slightly different armament participated in the first stages of testing. According to the results of the first firing, the version with unguided missiles was recognized as ineffective. The rocket-cannon version, in turn, turned out to be convenient and suitable for use by the troops. The plans of the command of the ILC included 125 air defense vehicles. However, funding cuts did not allow the LAV-AD to be finalized and put into service. In 1992, the US Army tried to revive the project, but financial problems buried it a second time.
Simultaneously with the LAV-AD, another combat vehicle based on the Piranha was being developed. LAV-MEWSS was equipped with electronic warfare equipment. One of the main elements of the target equipment of this vehicle was the GTE Magic Mast antenna unit. The telescopic 11-meter boom housed the antennas of the WJ-8618 radio station, the AN / PRD-10 radio direction finder and the AN / VLQ-19 jamming station. Inside the body of the machine, in addition to the equipment, the workplaces of two electronics operators were mounted. The total number of assembled LAV-ADs is estimated at 12-15 units. All vehicles were transferred to the Marine Corps by the end of the eighties.
The first combat use of armored vehicles of the LAV family took place in 1985 during the landing operation on the island of Grenada. There is no detailed information about the course of the battles, but by indirect indications it can be established that there were no irrecoverable losses among the American armored personnel carriers. The situation was approximately the same during the battles in Panama. The first losses of LAV vehicles relate to Operation Desert Storm, when, for various reasons, no less than a dozen or one and a half units were lost in battles and marches. The extent of damage and maintainability, as well as the further fate of the armored personnel carriers, were not disclosed.
Full mass production of LAV machines began in Canada around the mid-eighties. The North American state received good profits in the form of taxes, but was in no hurry to acquire such equipment. Due to some economic and military-technical reasons, the Canadian military waited until the early nineties. Most likely, they were waiting for the first results of combat use. A couple of years after the war in Iraq - in 1994 - the official Ottawa ordered from GMC about 500 armored vehicles in various configurations. The armored personnel carriers for Canada were almost identical to the LAV-25. After some minor modifications, they were renamed Bison. In addition, the Canadians independently created a modification of the LAV-R electronic intelligence, equipped with light weapons and a receiver unit. Some of the vehicles were equipped with a telescopic mast for lifting it, some with an outrigger tripod for installation away from the armored car.
After Canada, Australia showed a desire to buy Piranhas 8x8 in the version from GMC. Swiss-Canadian armored cars have found a place for themselves in a complex of reforms under the general name "Army of the XXI century." Over the next years, the Australian military received two and a half hundred vehicles in the configuration of an armored personnel carrier, a liaison armored car, an armored truck, an ambulance, etc.
The shipments of Piranhas 8x8 and LAV to Saudi Arabia should be noted separately. Having considered all the applications, in the early nineties, the Middle Eastern country unconditionally chose four-axle armored cars, but for a long time could not decide on the company to which they would be ordered. MOWAG and GMC offered to buy almost identical cars. The problem was resolved by a small adjustment to the appearance of the required vehicle. The Swiss company agreed to slightly modify its Piranha 8x8, but GMC did not take such a step. As a result, Saudi Arabia received over 1,100 combat vehicles in ten versions.
