Viatura Blindada Transporte de Pessoal – Media Sobre Rodas, code named Guarani, is one of Brazil’s most technologically advanced military vehicles. This beastly monster, as you can see, is an amphibious personnel carrier designed to carry 11 people (three crew and eight passengers) to any terrain in the world. The Iveco-based Brute is heavy at over 46,000 pounds, making it impossible to drive over many small bridges, but with six wheels to manage off-road stability, you don’t have to worry about bridges. You can just drive around.
In 1999 the Brazilian Army, South America’s largest national defense force, issued a request for bids on a new generation of amphibious armored fighting vehicles to replace its EE-9 Cascavel and EE-11 Urutu. Ten years later, Italy’s Iveco agreed to a bid of approximately 2.5 billion euros – $4.2 billion today – to produce 2,044 units. Known for its large cargo trucks, Iveco produces around 200,000 vehicles annually, making it a fairly small contract by its standards. And Iveco has other things on its mind, like its partnership with Metallica.
Brazil has not actually fought in any major international conflict since sending approximately 25,000 troops to fight alongside the Allied campaigns in Italy during World War II. As with most global powers these days, a large military is more about show of force and peacekeeping than international warfare. However, these amphibious vehicles are essential for ground operations within Brazil, as much of the country is covered in a dense carpet of forest and marshland, as well as thousands of rivers, tributaries, and lakes. A typical ground military transporter would have difficulty getting in and out of most Brazilian locations, including Henry Ford’s Amazon rubber dream, Fordlandia.
Guarani in detail
There are very few who can stop this amphibious armored personnel carrier. It has an Iveco Cursor 9 diesel engine, which produces a quite impressive 380 horsepower and 1,254 lb-ft of torque. This should basically be enough torque to climb over anything or tear down anything that gets in your way. However, there is a backup electric drive train and auxiliary stabilization system to keep it upright if the engine shuts down, if it gets hit by air strikes, or maybe one of Pablo Escobar’s escaped Colombian hippos wanders a little too far south. It will go up a 60% grade and can handle a 30% side slope, but you probably won’t be able to run much on flat ground, however, as the top speed of this armored personnel carrier is just 68 mph.
When things get tough and you break down all obstacles, Guarani can keep the people inside safe from any kind of harm. With a high-hardness monocoque steel V-shaped hull, anti-mine protection and fittings for additional armor if necessary, you can take a few hits and survive to spit them back out. The transporter is not only equipped with onboard life support systems, but also has extensive fire fighting arrangements in case anything happens inside. And, just to be on the safe side, the VBTP-MR Guarani can be equipped with nuclear, biological and chemical weapons protection add-ons.
Despite this, you are not a sitting duck inside one of these machines, as they can be equipped with any type of modular weaponry. They typically carry 30 mm medium-caliber weapons, but may also be equipped with counter-drone hardware, C4I comms arrays, or jammers.
Who else has Guarani?
Like all things government related, the program fell behind in deadlines and fell short in quantity, as the first group of 86 VBTP-MR units was to be delivered by 2012, but only 13 were supplied two years later. All units were to be delivered by 2030, but the timetable has been extended to 2037 and the Brazilian Army has reduced the number of units to about half of the original contract.
Since taking up the contract, IVECO has managed to sell additional units to Ghana, Argentina and the Philippines. It seems like anyone with a spare million dollars can call Iveco and get a Guarani for themselves. Do you have a private island or compound somewhere that needs protection? This modular machine may be the answer for you. If you were begging for more, Iveco also makes the SuperAV, an amphibious armored vehicle with eight wheels.
Chances are you haven’t personally declared war against anyone else since World War II, so like Brazil you could grab a handful of Guarani from Iveco and deploy your own private army to patrol your land. You never know when someone might come in handy.
