Rio de Janeiro (RJ) – Iveco Defence Vehicles/Latin America, celebrated on September 28, in Sete Lagoas (MG), the manufacturing of the Guarani 6×6 medium armored personnel carrier (VBTP-MSR) vehicle number 600. The celebration was attended by military personnel from the Brazilian Army’s Manufacturing Directorate (DF) and Iveco’s board of directors and management.
Within the Army’s Strategic Program Armored Forces, this project emerged with the objective of contributing to the transformation of the motorized infantry military organizations into mechanized ones and the modernization of the mechanized cavalry military organizations, replacing the EE-11 Urutu VBTP.
Thus, the development of the Guarani VBTP began in 2007, in the former Project Office of the Department of Science and Technology (DCT) in Rio de Janeiro, with the active participation of military engineers from the Manufacturing Directorate (DF), a military organization subordinated to the DCT.
In mid-2013, Iveco inaugurated its defense vehicles production plant in the city of Sete Lagoas. Since then, about 60 vehicles have been produced annually to equip various military organizations throughout Brazil. The project is innovative in nature, since it combines state-of-the-art weapons and command and control (communications) systems in a modern military automotive platform, making up the New Family of Armored Units on Wheels (NFBR), currently being implemented by the Land Force.
In this way, the Armored Forces Program and, in particular, the Guarani Project strengthens Brazil’s defense industrial base, achieving autonomy in strategic technologies for the country, contributing to job creation and training civilian and military personnel in research, development, and innovation in the area of armored military vehicles.
Source: Manufacturing Directory