- Yes
- No
A British built, Swiss designed vehicle with a US turret marketed to clients in the Middle East.
Introduction
In January 1991, GKN Defence (soon to become Alvis Vehicles) announced that Swiss company MOWAG had awarded them a contract to construct a significant number of Pirahna 8x8 AFVs for one of MOWAGs middle eastern customers. This contract was for a total of 100 - 120 vehicles built by Alvis, of six different variants, to the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Defence and Aviation (MODA). These included ambulance, recovery, surveillance, VIP APCs, and mortar variants of the Piranha.
Following this successful partnership, MOWAG and Alvis signed an agreement which licensed Alvis to become a System Prime Contractor for the design, integration, production, and marketing of the Alvis Vehicles Piranha 8x8 for agreed customers.
Subsequently, Alvis enjoyed moderate success producing, marketing, and exporting the Piranha 8x8. In 1994, Oman ordered a total of 80 Alvis Piranhas, with an agreed option for 46 further vehicles.
As well as producing a variety of vehicles for middle eastern customers, Alvis fitted out their Piranha IIs in numerous unique configurations as part of demonstrations for the product, and mounted a variety of turrets to market the vehicle to potential export customers.
This suggestion is for the Alvis Piranha II as fitted with the Delco 25mm IFV turret, armed with twin TOW launchers and a 25mm M242 Bushmaster, as shown at MVEE 1999. Several versions of the Delco turret were used by Alvis to demonstrate their production line of the Piranha II, and what makes this variant unique is it is the latest variant of the Delco 25mm turret as equipped with the TOW launchers on the turret, very similar to the one fitted to the Desert Warriors operated by Kuwait. This gives the British tree the option of multiple unique wheeled IFVs, with the earlier Alvis Piranha II IFV, with the older Delco turret, being an option with no 25mm APFSDS and only basic TOWs, belonging at around 8.3 as a wheeled M3 Bradley, while this later 1999 variant of the vehicle could be introduced with 25mm APFSDS and TOW-2As and 2Bs to sit at around 9.7 as a wheeled Desert Warrior.
This variant of the Alvis Piranha was marketed to potential export customers, but no purchasers were found, so the vehicle did not enter serial production.
Specifications
Spoiler
Chassis
Armament & Turret
Images
Spoiler
Alvis Piranha II IFV as preserved at Bovington
Alvis Piranha II IFV as seen on a [rather obscure British TV show from the early 2000s
The Alvis Piranha as fitted with the earlier Delco 25mm IFV turret. Note the difference in TOW launchers, position of the smoke grenades, and overall turret geometry.
The difference between the early and late Delco IFV turrets, as seen on the Desert Warrior Prototype and earlier Alvis Pirahna II IFV (top) and production Desert Warrior (bottom)
Sources