BAE Systems launches Casspir Mk 6

17 August 2011 by defenceWeb

BAE Systems has launched the latest version of the highly successful Casspir mine protected armoured vehicle, the Casspir Mk 6.

BAE Land Systems South Africa said the new variant of the veteran armoured personnel carrier can accommodate 16 people, and incorporates improvements gained from experience with the battle proven RG31. More than 2400 RG31s are in service and the type has seen extensive combat in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.

“This new version integrates decades of experience saving lives, offering a solution with a world class track record”, said Johan Steyn, managing director, Land Systems South Africa.

“With proven mobility, crew and ballistic protection, getting the soldiers safely around any environment was top of mind during development of this vehicle,” Steyn added.

Steyn said the Casspir Mk 6 uses off-the-shelf building blocks as well as a commercial drive train to ensure affordability. The vehicle is an open architecture design, meaning it is available in a variety of variants, including 4x4, 6x6, utility and command.

The Casspir Mk 6 is approximately 7.59 metres long, 2.67 metres wide, with a ground clearance of 38 centimetres. Its gross vehicle mass is 14,320 kg. Some of the weight comes from armour plating used in the innovative V-shaped hull, which deflects land mine blasts.

The Casspir Mk 6 is primarily aimed at the African market, but will be marketed overseas as a lower cost mine protected vehicle, according to BAE Systems spokeswoman Natasha Pheiffer. The new variant has no orders at present, but BAE will commence marketing it soon.

Originally developed by the then-Defence Research Unit of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research on a budget of R80 000 to a South African Police requirement for an armoured, mine-protected counterinsurgency vehicle – hence the name “Casspir”, an anagram for SAP and CSIR – the vehicle was also adopted in that role by the SA Army.

An estimated 2500 Casspirs were built since the first prototype rolled out of the TFM plant in April 1979 and about 170 remain in South African Army service. Some 167 Casspirs were upgraded in 2006 as part of Project Gijima.

This quintessential mine resistant, armour protected, personnel carrier is seen as one of two inspirations of the MRAP that now proliferates worldwide, the other being the TFM, (now BAE Systems SA, Land Systems OMC) RG31.

During the Namibian-Angolan Border War (1966-1989), the Casspir served, inter alia with the South African police counterinsurgency unit commonly known as “Koevoet”, the South West African Territory Force's 101 Battalion and the SA Defence Force's 5 Reconnaissance Regiment (5RR). After the end of the war the 101Bn vehicles were returned to the SA Army and assigned to the motorised infantry.

The Casspir has also entered service with more than half a dozen other nations, including India, Nepal, Indonesia, Djibouti and Mozambique, amongst others.