General Info
Spoiler
The story of the VCC-1 Camillino began in 1974, shortly after the Italian army had stopped evaluating many different types of vehicles such as the M113A1PI (product improved), Marder and other vehicles created by mowag, it was decided to create an entirely new vehicle based on the FMC M113 family of vehicles. At the time Italy was using the M113 in many different roles, but began to see the need to improve its design to not only allow for it to remain in service, but also to improve on the many defects that they would encounter when using the M113. Italy would have the ‘Servizio Tecnico della Motorizzazione’ and OTO Melara to be in charge of this development. Part of what the Italians weren’t keen on in regards to the M113, involved its armor. The M113 was far too weak for it to be seriously be put in the frontlines, so when making the VCC-1 they made sure that it would be much better protected, although the new armor it would get wasn’t exactly going to allow the VCC-1 to survive much, it was still an improvement from the M113 which ultimately they were happy about. Another change they made was the addition of the infantry inside the vehicle to aim and fire their weapons from inside the hull, other minor improvements included new seating arrangements. During the development of the machine 3 variants emerged, the MK1 which utilized a 12.7mm controlled by a soldier physically, a MK2 which also used a 12.7mm but was tele-commanded and lastly the MK3 which used a 20mm. The Italian army was mainly interested in the MK1 and MK3 versions (Italy wanted the MK3 as it was interested in increasing its firepower on the field). The MK3 variant specifically went unto mount the weapon system known as the 20mm Rheinmetall Rh 202, this weapon system was widely used by many nations and would be able to fire various amounts of munitions, such as APDS, HEI-T and API-T. It also had a dual role as it was able to be used both against ground and air targets. For additional firepower, a 7.62mm machine gun could be mounted at the back to provide covering fire to the rear of the vehicle. In terms of speed the VCC-1 wasn’t the fastest in its class, the engine it used would generate up to 210hp and allowed the vehicle to reach speeds of up to 64km an hour. The VCC-1 had an overall range of 320km, and was able to be operated on pretty much any terrain. Similarly to the M113 however, sources claim that the vehicle still had ability to be amphibous, being propelled by its tracks on water, its likely that it would not be very fast however. As testing of the VCC-1 began, the 20mm gun would be initially controlled by a gunner outside the vehicle, however later down the line of development it was actually modified and made it so the gun could be controlled while the gunner was within the vehicle, this helped greatly as it allowed the gunner to stay hidden while firing the weapon and not leaving them exposed to enemy fire. Sadly, as most Italian cold war projects end up, the 20mm gun variant had to be removed and expected deliveries of it were replaced with the base variant which would be more cost effective. This change was mainly due to 20mm Rh 202 being too expensive when compared to the 12.7mm 50 cal. Final deliveries of the VCC-1 Camillino were made in 1982 which allowed Italy to look ahead and allow the VCC-1 to be placed on the market for potential export, they achieved some success. Pakistan for example would place an order for the VCC-1’s.
VCC-1 TUA
Spoiler
OTO Melara had generated some interest from a few countries, but none would actually be interested in the TUA variant besides one. Saudi Arabia formally made a requesto for several orders of the vehicle. They would be very interested as at the time they did not have an ATGM vehicle of that type, and considering that the only other similar version would be on a worse chassis (American M901), they opted for the Italian version. They also trusted OTO Melara as at the time they had a lot of experience in making military vehicles. Saudi Arabia was the first and only buyer of the VCC-1 TUA. They managed to receive all of their 224 orders by the end of 1984. The VCC-1 TUA was armed with an Emerson ‘Tow Under Armor’ launcher, the same system installed on the American M901 and tested on the Italian C-13 APC also made by OTO Melara. The TUA launcher could fire a variety of TOW ATGM’s. Likely during development it utilized the TOW and I-TOW missile, but later down the line when it was in Saudi service, it is likely they equipped them with the improved TOW-2 series of ATGM’s. Due to limited information, the VCC-1 Camillino TUA In Saudi service is not really talked about. Some sources state that the vehicle was deployed in the Najran province, mainly used to support infantry. The Story of the vehicle doesn’t end there though, the Saudis instead of getting rid of the VCC-1’s when they were reaching a stage of them being obsolete they would hire a Turkish company known as ‘‘FNSS’’ (FN Savunma Sistemleri) to help upgrade and modernize the VCC-1 TUA which aimed to improve the vehicle in a wide array of sectors. Mainly the upgrade consists of new add-on armor was placed in certain area’s of the vehicle, new radio devices, new smoke discharging systems, and likely improvements to the engine.
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