Belgium Selects Piranha IIIs for $850M APC Contract, Controversies Ensue

Endangered Leopard(click to view full) In DID’s July 2005 article covering Belgium’s impending defense purchases, we noted that country’s Armoured Infantry Vehicle (AIV) program to replace its 132 Leopard 1A5BE main battle tanks, as well as its AIFV and M113 armored personnel carriers, with wheeled APCs. The contract was valued at up to EUR 800 million (about $1 billion) for 242 vehicles, in 7 separate versions that would include troop transport, combat engineer, commando, ambulance and logistic support missions. We also noted that a contract would “probably be awarded by the early months of 2006.” Now a winner has just been selected from among the finalists (GD-Steyr’s Pandur II, GD-MOWAG’s Piranha III/LAV III, Iveco’s Centauro, and Patria’s Armored Modular Vehicle), a contract has been signed with Elbit for electro-optics and a 30mm remote weapons system – and a pair of controversies are brewing, plus a related DID article we can only describe as “Dude, Where’s My Pandur?” The Winning Order The new base platform(click to view full) Key requirements for the AIV included on and off road mobility, crew comfort and safety, vehicle versatility, a high level of protection for the vehicle crews against mines and ballistic weapons, and integration […]