General Dynamics United Kingdom Limited has been selected by the UK Ministry of Defence as the provisionally preferred bidder for the Utility Vehicle Design (UVD) for the Future Rapid Effect System (FRES). The UK MoD announced the selection in May 2008.
Subject to satisfactory completion of the package of work on risk reduction, General Dynamics UK will develop the Piranha V as the FRES utility vehicle for the British Army. The company will now enter negotiations with the MoD to determine the scope of development work required.
“General Dynamics UK will develop the Piranha V as the FRES utility vehicle for the British Army.”
The development of the Piranha V is being carried out by General Dynamics UK and Mowag of Switzerland (part of the General Dynamics European Land Combat Systems group). The manufacture of the first Piranha V prototype will be completed by the end of 2008 and a schedule is in place to ramp up to production status compatible with the Initial Operational Capability (IOC) date of 2012, with transfer of this capability into the UK to ensure UK sovereign control through-life.
The Piranha V 8×8 is the fifth-generation of the family of Piranha wheeled utility vehicles and is being developed by General Dynamics, using private venture funding, specifically to meet the UK armed forces’ FRES requirement.
The Piranha V is a British development of a European design and therefore free of the US Department of Defense International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) restrictions, thus simplifying its transfer into the UK to meet the UK defence industrial strategy objectives.
A large number of Piranha vehicles are currently deployed on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since 1996 the Piranha vehicles have been built in 6×6, 8×8 and 10×10 variants and, by the end of 2007, more than 9,000 variants of Piranha vehicles were on order or in service in over 20 nations’ armed forces worldwide, including the US Army’s Stryker vehicle, a variant of the Piranha III.
In June 2007, the UK MoD announced that the Piranha vehicle was one of three vehicles selected for the FRES utility vehicle ‘Trials of Truth’. The Piranha Evolution vehicle was General Dynamics’ candidate vehicle in these trials, which were held in 2007 at the MoD’s armoured trials and development unit at Bovington. The Piranha Evolution vehicle is an interim design and is the basis for the development of the Piranha V.
The trial of the Piranha Evolution provided a demonstration of the potential of Piranha to meet the FRES threshold requirements and the stretch potential to meet the emerging and future requirements which will develop with the armed forces’ evolving operational needs.
General Dynamics UK has established a programme office in Bristol, UK, to provide a focal point for its FRES partnership with industry and the Ministry of Defence. General Dynamics is evaluating a range of options for the manufacture, assembly and test within the UK. This includes an evaluation of existing and new facilities.
PIRANHA V VEHICLE
“The manufacture of the first Piranha V prototype will be completed by the end of 2008.”
The main differences between the Piranha V vehicle and the current variants are: higher levels of protection, up-rated drive-train to cater for weight growth, greater internal volume, improved mobility, enhanced power and power management and a modern, open, electronic architecture.
Piranha V has significant additional internal capacity over the existing fleet of vehicles. The additional capacity will ease the burden on stowage and the carriage of supporting weaponry and materiel.
Assisted steering is provided on the two front pairs of wheels and the rear wheels. The wheels are fitted with run flat tyres, a central tyre inflation system and anti-lock braking. The pressure of each tyre is automatically controlled at 30-second intervals. The crew can set the tyre pressure to pre-selected pressures for metalled road, cross country, sandy terrain and for emergency operation, optimising the vehicle for ride and tactical mobility.
The vehicle has the capacity to generate increased electrical power on demand and has an integrated power management system. The power system will accommodate new systems and technologies which are currently under development.
The 28t gross weight meets the MoD’s 30t weight envelope for rapid deployment in the A400M transport aircraft.
WEAPONS
Piranha has already demonstrated a broad range of weapon systems mounted on the platform to suit mission requirements: e.g. 12.7mm, 25mm, 30mm or low-recoil 105mm guns, including Rheinmetall Landsysteme weapon station with 12.7mm gun and Delco Systems 25mm and 30mm turrets.
SURVIVABILITY
The Piranha V provides a greatly increased level of protection compared to the earlier Piranha variants. The improvements have benefited from direct experience of Piranha on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“The Piranha V 8×8 is the fifth-generation of the family of Piranha wheeled utility vehicles.”
The internal and external physical layout of the vehicle, the integrated mine-protected seats and a range of other survivability features are incorporated into the design.
The Piranha designs incorporate shaped hull plates to optimise against blast, spacing in the add-on armour and surface coatings to minimise the thermal and radar signatures.
The modular armour system provides protection against Rocket-Propelled Grenades (RPGs), 14.5mm armour-piercing rounds through 360° and 30mm armour piercing rounds across the 30° frontal arc. The hull provides protection against 8kg anti-tank mines.
Development work has been carried out for the integration of a Hard-Kill Defensive Aids Suite (HK DAS) and protection against Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) on Piranha V.
The Piranha V has the capacity to generate increased power to enable the effective application of selected or developing survivability technologies as they become available, such as hard or soft-kill defensive aid systems or electric armour.
COMMAND AND CONTROL
The Piranha V and its predecessor the Piranha Evolution are fitted with the Bowman secure tactical digital communications system. The voice and data communications system does not require encoding and decoding. A global positioning system processor is integrated into each Bowman radio that updates all the other radios on the network. The system provides fast secure tactical digital communications and enhanced situational awareness with automatic location and navigation reporting.
The Piranha V has a fully integrated FRES utility vehicle electronic architecture. The architecture is integrated with the Battle Command Integration Programme (BCIP), local and on-board situational awareness suite, the Health and Usage Monitoring System (HUMS), the collective protection systems (COLPRO) and the remote weapon station.
ENGINE
The vehicle is powered by an MTU 6V199 TE20 diesel engine, rated at 550hp, with a ZF 7HP 902 seven-speed electronically controlled automatic transmission. The vehicle meets European emissions standards.
“A large number of Piranha vehicles are currently deployed on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
The power-to-weight ratio is dependent on the mission configuration and combat weight of the vehicle and is approximately 20hp/t at 28t combat weight and with the TE20 550hp engine.
During the MoD’s trials at Bovington in 2007, the power pack was removed, reinstalled and running in less than an hour in an ease-of-maintenance assessme