The Piranha V armored vehicles from the new batch for the Romanian Army will be equipped with Cardom launchers produced in Romania

The next batch of Piranha V armored personnel carriers that will enter the equipment of the Romanian armed forces will be equipped with autonomous mortars of the Cardom Spear type, of caliber 120 mm, by Elbit Systems, which will be produced in our country.

Elmet Group presented at Black Sea Defense & Aerospace 2022 (BSDA) the Cardom launcher, which will be produced in Romania in Bacau.

The Cardom is a 120 mm mortar developed by Elbit Systems that can hit targets at over 7 kilometers.

In the discussions held with Elmet representatives, they told us that the system is completely produced in Romania and the launcher will be equipped on the next batch of 26 Piranha V transporters.

In other configurations the carriers can serve as armored ambulance, recovery, command, but in the equipment of our Army Piranha V they are also in the configuration where they are equipped with an Elbit turret with a 30 mm cannon.

The next batch of 26 Piranha Vs will feature 120mm Cardom launchers, mounted directly on the floor of the vehicle.

Furthermore, the Elmet representatives specified that the mortar can also use intelligent ammunition, although this type of ammunition is not used by the Romanian Army.

"It can also integrate smart ammunition guided by GPS, which at the moment is not used in Romania. A modification of the software, however, would allow the use of this type of ammunition as well", the representatives of Elmet specified to us, who emphasized that all the components of the system are produced in Romania, by Elmet, a company owned by the giant Elbit Systems.

A Danish Piraha V during firings with the 120mm Cardom launcher. Photo Source: Danish Armed Forces
A Danish Piraha V during firings with the 120mm Cardom launcher. Photo Source: Danish Armed Forces

Providing the Romanian armed forces with Piranha V armored personnel carriers
Piranha V will be built in Romania based on a joint-venture agreement between Uzina Mecanică Bucharest (UMB) and the American giant General Dynamics European Land Systems Romania (GDELS Romania).

Romania started the essential endowment program '8x8 armored personnel carrier', after which the big winner was Piranha V, it was initiated, in November 2017, by a Decision of the Government of Romania, by which the circumstances and the specific procedure related to the first stage were approved, in order to award a framework agreement for the supply of 227 armored personnel carriers and derivatives on the Piranha V platform and initial logistic support to General Dynamics European Land Systems - Mowag GmbH.

Starting this year, the conveyors will be produced in our country.

source: Defense Romania

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