Spain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) armament procurement arm DGAM (Dirección General de Armamento y Material) has awarded a local team formed by General Dynamics European Land Systems-Santa Bárbara Sistemas (GDEL-SBS), Indra Sistemas and SAPA Placencia companies a contract worth EUR89,2 million to develop and built prototypes of the future 8×8 armoured infantry vehicle of the Spanish Army (Ejército de Tierra, ET). The vehicle to be developed by the consortium will be based on the Piranha 5 design of Swiss firm General Dynamics European Land Systems-Mowag.
The program designated Vehículo de Combate sobre Ruedas (VCR) is aimed to replace the BMR-600, VEC-25 and several of the M113s. Hundreds of vehicles will be purchased.
The Marine Corps of the Spanish Navy currently fields several Piranha III vehicles of different configurations (ambulance, engineer, command post, recovery & repair, reconnaissance, and infantry fighting with Rheinmetall Defence Lance MTS 35mm two-man modular protected turret).
The Piranha 5 was recently chosen by Denmark
