The Brazilian Army has recently published two documents, one outlining operational requirements and the other technical, logistical, and industrial requirements, that will lead to the potential future acquisition of a new main battle tank (MBT).
Project ‘Viatura Blindada de Combate-Carro de Combate’ (VBC-CC) points to an armoured fighting vehicle manned by a crew of four with a combat weight of less than 50 tonnes and maximum dimensions of 12 m in length and 4 m in width with a maximum hull height of 3 m. It is expected to have a top speed exceeding 60 km/h, a range of 400 km, and the ability to ford to a depth of 1 m and to be able to traverse a ditch or trench up to 2.5 m wide at maximum load.
The army is seeking a tracked chassis with a multi-fuel engine and semi-automatic or automatic transmission and a turret with manual and electric drive, with both offering low thermal and radar signatures. The turret must be armed with a stabilised, low-recoil 120 mm smoothbore main gun, a 7.62 mm coaxial machine gun, a remote-control weapon station armed with a 12.7 mm machine gun, and eight 76 mm smoke grenade launchers.
Mandatory items would include a 24V electrical system; an automatic fire suppression system; a fire control system with ballistic computer, weather station, target auto-tracking, laser rangefinder and thermal imager for commander and gunner; an air conditioning unit; a command-and-control system comprising a radio, intercom and battle management system (BMS); an auxiliary power unit; a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear protection kit; a hard- or soft-kill protection system; an external rear-mounted telephone; and provisions for frontal obstacle-breaching components, a signature management system, additional armour and an internal spall liner.
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