Thailand's DTI presents new wheeled AFV: the Black Widow Spider

Thailand is developing a new 8 x 8 wheeled armored fighting vehicle, which has been named "Black Widow Spider". It was developed by Defence Technology Institute of Thailand with help from ST Kinetics of Singapore. It is said to incorporate technology from the Irish Timoney Technology Group, who already worked on other Asian wheeled combat vehicles such as the Taiwanese Cloud Leopard and the Singaporean Terrex.
The current version of it was presented on the Defence & Security 2015 military exhibition in Thailand.

The Black Widow Spider

The presented version of the Black Widow Spider is fitted with a remotely operated turret, which appears to be identical to the turret demonstrated on the ST Kinetic's Terrex II infantry fighting vehicle. The turret is equipped with a 30 mm Mk 44 Bushmaster II, a 7.62 mm NATO machine gun, optics for the gunner and an independent commander's sight, and a number of smoke grenade launchers.
A number of photographs of the vehicle were already shown on the internet several weeks before the 2015 exhibition. An earlier prototype was presented in 2013, which however was lacking a lot of the features of the current Black Widow Spider, such as the composite armor, the unmanned turret, the splash guard and the propeller blades for amphibious operations.

Older prototype of the Black Widow Spider seeing earlier this year

Side view of the Black Widow Spider

The Black Widow Spider presented at Defence & Security 2015 has a weight of 24 tons including the IFV. It is powered by a 450 hp diesel engine from Caterpillar. The vehicle has an operational range of 600 kilometers. Seating is provided for the driver, the gunner, the commander and up to nine dismounts.

The seats for the dismounts are not attached to the floor, which increases survivability against mines

 The battlefield management system (BMS) of the Black Widow Spider is made by ST Kinetics of Singapore. The composite armor used on the current version of the vehicle (previous prototypes lacked any sort of composite amor) is supplied by the Israel Military Industries (IMI). When fitted with the composite armor from IMI, the Black Widow Spider is protected against 14.5 mm armor-piercing (AP) ammunition in accordance with the NATO STANAG standard 4569. The gun used on the prototype IFV version is like the BMS also manufactured by ST Kinetics.

The battlefield management system in the BWS

The Black Widow Spider is the result of the Wheeled Armoured Vehicle Research and Development Project using the technical abilites and knowledge of the Thai army, the private industry and a number of research institutes in Thailand. The vehicle is an attempt of being less reliant on foreign manufacturers, which have shown to be problematic in some cases (such as the delivery of Ukrainian armor being troubled due to the conflict in the East-Ukraine).
Apparently no official requirement and order was made by the Thai army yet, but this might change after the Black Widow Spider went through field trials.

Belarusian armor upgrades

The Army of Belarus has presented upgraded versions of their main armored fighting vehicles such as the T-72B main battle tank (MBT), the BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) and the BTR-80 wheeled armored personnel carrier (APC) as reported by the Russian-language website "Journal of Mordovia". The vehicles are part of the 120^th Guards mechanized brigade which was visisted by the Belarusian president/dictator Alexander Lukashenko and a crew from the Belarusian TV channel/show "Arsenal".

The upgraded vehicles being presented for the first time to public

The turret of the BMP-2 shows a large central weakspot were no slat armor is installed

The BMP-2's lower front, turret and sides are fitted with slat armor.
It's unlikely that an RPG fuzes at the highly sloped upper front plate of the hull

The BTR-80's sides and turret are also protected by slat armor

Details of the slat armor installation

The upgrades consist of additional armor protection in form of slat armor, which is designed to crush the warheads of rocket propelled grenades (RPGs) and hence prevent the shaped charge to form a armor-piercing jet. On the T-72B, currently the main tank of the Belarusian army, the slat armor protects the sides and rear of the turret at the places where no Kontakt ERA is mounted.On the BMP-2 and the BTR-80, the slat armor protects the lower front, the turret, the sides and probably also the rear section of the vehicles.

The slat armor mounted at the front section of the BTR-80

The new slat armor upgrade was developed this year following the poor performance of such vehicles in asymmetric warfare in Syria and Ukraine.

Details of the slat armor mounted on the T-72B turret

Details of the slat armor mounted on the T-72B turret

It is not yet known if these armor upgrades will be purchased for the Belarusian army on any larger scale.

Merkava 2 conversion into other vehicles

The Israel Defence Force (IDF) is converting a number of Merkava II main battle tanks (MBTs) to an armored personnel carrier version. The Merkava II MBT originally entered service with the IDF in 1983 as an improved version of the Merkava I tank. It features spaced armor (which subsequently was reinforced with composite armor on upgraded models), a 105 mm M68 tank gun and a 900 hp AVDS-1790-6A  V12 engine in combination with a Renk 304 transmission licence-built by Ashot Ashkelon.

The Merkava II APC is fitted with a fixed superstructure instead of the turret.

If the sources on different internet articles are correct, it was originally planned to base the Namer heavy APC on the older Merkava I and Merkava II tanks. The Namera prototype - which predates the custom-made Namer - was based on the outdated Merkava I.

Namera APC

According to Jane's IHS The IDF wants to use the converted Merkava II vehicles as "battlefield logistics carriers" (sounds like a cargo version), casualty evacuation (armored ambulance) and for use as a command post vehicle. At least two prototypes (one cargo transport vehicle and one casevac vehicle) are planned, of which the first has already been finished.
These new Merkava II variants are to replace the outdated M113 APCs which are still the backbone of the IDF.

M1A2 SEP v3 revealed

The M1A2 SEP v3 has been revealed on the AUSA 2015.

The tank looks rather similar to the earlier models of the M1A2 SEP, only the type and placement of the remote weapon station have been slightly altered.

The M1A2 SEP v3 adds a number of new features to improve the lethality, survivability and networking of the tank. An ammunition data link (ADL) has been added to the tank, which allows the use of programmable ammunition. The tank can utilize new and improved ammunition like the M829E4 and the XM1147 multipurpose round.
Furthermore the foward-looking infrared optics were replaced by a newer generation and the CROWS remote weapon station (RWS) was modified to the CROWS-LP (low profile) version, which allows folding down the RWS in order to decrease overall height of the tank.


The APU has been moved to a place under armor protection (probably into the rear hull section) and the digital screens inside the tank have now a 1080p resolution.


General Dynamics is also offering to upgrade the M1A2 SEP v3 with a German MTU 883 diesel engine, replacing the previous AGT-1500C gas turbine. This move would reduce fuel consumption - and thus reducing the total operating costs by 14%.

GD contracted to upgrade tanks intended for Morocco

The US Army has contracted the M1 Abrams manufacturer General Dynamics to overhaul and upgrade150 M1A1 tanks to the M1A1 SA (situational awareness) configuration for a foreign military sales contract with Morocco. Each tank will completely reassembled to a zero-mile condition.
The reported costs of this contract is §358 million.

Deliveries are expected to begin in January of 2017 and end in February 2018.

M1A1 AIM tank

The M1A1 SA is based on the M1A1 AIM (Abrams Integrated Management). Among other features, the M1A1 SA upgrade includes second-generation thermal imaging systems, a far target locator system, enhanced command and control  systems, a tank-infantry phone, a thermal sight for the .50 cal machine gun, an eye-safe laser rangefinder and enhanced systems for the driver's vision.
The M1A1 SA is also fitted with improved armor compared to the M1A1 AIM and M1A1 HA, albeit it is unkown if the Moroccan tanks will be fitted with a downgraded export armor package or not.

Interesting Wiesel 2 vehicle spotted at MDM

During the recent MDM 2015 (Moden Day Marine) event in the United States of America, an interesting version of the Wiesel 2 was presented (and apparently marketed to the USMC) by Rheinmetall.

The vehicle is configured as armored personnel carrier (APC) and seems to provide enough space for six dismounts, a driver and a gunner (although it might be 5 or 7 dismounts, the available photographs are limited).
The most interesting aspect however is the weapons choice. The remote weapon station (RWS) is fitted with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher (in the vehicle shown at MDM there was a mock-up of one of Dynamit Nobel Defence's RGW weapon systems) and a three-barreled 7.62 mm machine gun made by Rheinmetall. It seems to be the externally powered RMG 7.62 machine gun that Rheinmetall first presented in 2013. Unlike gatling-type machine guns (miniguns), the RMG 7.62 does not use multiple barrels to incease the rate of fire (RoF), but rather to increase the longevity of the weapon, while having a RoF of a modest 800 rounds per minute.

It seems reasonable to assume that the weapon station might be modular and able to handle other machine gun systems (such as the MG3 and the M2 Browning) and recoilless weapons (such as the AT-4 or maybe some fire-and-forget systems such as Javelin).

Source: soldiersystems.net

Panzerhaubitze 2000 and other former-German equipment sold to Lithuania

The Lithuianian ministry of defence (MoD) announced on 28th of September 2015 that the army has purchased a total of 53 combat vehicles from Germany. The contract was signed one day later on the 29th of September.

The complete purchase includes:

• 21 Panzerhaubitze 2000 self-propelled guns 
• 26 M577 V2 command post vehicles 
• 6 BPz 2 armored recovery vehicles

The total costs of the deal was €58.3 million, which will be alocated until 2019. €16.2 million were paid for the 53 vehicles, while €42.1 million were paid for modernization, upgrading the new vehicles with communication and mangaement systems as used by the Lithuanian army, and for adjusting military infrastructure for the Panzerhaubitze 2000 as well for training personnel.

The Panzerhaubitze 2000 (PzH 2000) is a self-propelled howitzer equipped with a 155 mm L/52 rifled gun. The chassis is made of armor steel and provides a relatively high level of protection (supposedly equal to the Leopard 1 hull). Additional armor can be mounted on top of the Panzerhaubitze 2000 roof in order to provide adequate protection against counter-battery fire and bomblets. The useage of many Leopard 1 and Leopard 2 military off-the-shelf (MOTS) components reduces the unit price of a PzH 2000.
Compared to the previous 105 mm towed artillery used by the Lithuanian army, the PzH 2000 has more than three times the effective firing range - according to the MoD, the PzH 2000 can accurately engage targets up to 40 kilometers, while the 105 mm howitzers have a range of 11 kilometers.

The M577 V2 command post vehicle is originally an American vehicle based on the M113. The German army bought 220 M577A1 vehicles during the Cold War. The designation M577 V2 seems to be local or it might be a mistranslation of the German NDV2 upgrade, that was applied to several M113-based vehicles. The NDV includes a new and more powerful engine (providing 300 hp output, made by MTU) and a new transmission.

The Bergepanzer 2 (BPz 2) is an armored recovery vehicle based on the Leopard 1 chassis.

The delivery of the first vehicles is expected to begin in 2016, the last vehicles should be received as of 2019.

Meanwhile the decision for an 8x8 wheeled infantry fighting vehicle has not been made yet by the Lithuanian armed forces. While - as previously reported - the army prefers the German Boxer, other parts of the Lithuanian military and/or government seem to dislike the high unit costs of a Boxer. The total costs supposedly are about €500 milions and the unit costs are supposedly 35% higher than some other alternatives investigated by the Lithuanian army according to an interview of the Lithuanian newspaper DELFI (use google translator).
On the other hand the Boxer with Puma turret (nicknamed PuBo by German officials) is probably the most capable vehicle offered to Lithuania.