Italian Iveco Defence Vehicles (IDV) and Spanish Indra signed cooperation agreements on the new VACIM amphibious combat vehicle project. They will promote this project for Spain's Marine Corps.
The IDV-manufactured SUPERAV 8x8 wheeled armored vehicle was chosen for the proposal. Under the agreement, 34 units will immediately be delivered to Indra, which will make four variants based on them according to Spanish requirements: transport, command, medevac, as well as armored recovery vehicle.
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All this is being conducted within the Spanish armed forces modernization project. One can also mention mass artillery procurement here, where they will receive favorable terms on South Korean K9. The country also plans to acquire wheeled transport together with Portugal.
Regarding SUPERAV, this is a line of wheeled armored combat vehicles that has empty weight of 27.5 tons with payload up to 4 tons. The hull is a monocoque manufactured from armored steel. Mine protection is present.
Such equipment in quantities of 36 units was ordered by Italy for its marines' needs. It should replace tracked AAV-7s in the country's service. The U.S. Marine Corps also chose it for similar replacement. Their variant is called ACV and is manufactured by BAE Systems.
Regarding Spain, its marines currently use wheeled Swiss-origin Piranha IIIC 8x8 as well as American AAV-7. Therefore, as we see, SUPERAV will become the latter’s successor here as well.
Spanish industry is currently working on the Dragon 8x8 armored vehicle, which should replace M113s, which were also transferred to Ukraine. However, numerous problems arose, due to which deliveries to the military are currently essentially suspended.
Regarding Iveco, the company was sold to Indian TATA, but its military IDV division, which is SUPERAV's manufacturer, went to Italian Leonardo. At the same time, the latter plans to resell the newly acquired company's truck division to German Rheinmetall.
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