Spanish MoD ready to sign contract next week for production of 384 VCR Dragon 8x8 armored vehicles.

According to information released by the Defensa.com website, on August 22, 2020, Spanish Ministry of Defense and the companies Indra Sistemas, Santa Bárbara Sistemas, Sapa Placencia and Escribano Mechanical & Engineering and Sapa could sign next week a contract for the production for the first series of 348 units of the 8x8 Wheeled Combat Vehicle (VCR) Dragon for the Spanish Army.
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VCR Dragon 8x8 wheeled armored combat vehicle for Spanish Army. (Picture source Indra Company)

In June 2020, it was announced that the Spanish Council of Ministers approved full-rate production of the first 348 wheeled combat armored vehicles under the VCR 8×8 program. On June 17, 2020, a live demonstration of the new VCR Dragon was conducted at the GDELS-Santa Bárbara Sistemas factory in Alcalá de Guadaira (Seville).

The goal of the VCR (Vehiculo de Combate sobre Ruedas - Wheeled Combat Vehicle) is to replace the fleet of Pegaso BMR 6x6 armored personnel carrier which is in service with the Spanish army since 1979.

The program of Wheeled Combat Vehicle has as main aim to obtain a combat system that includes the new technical solutions to face the evolution of threats and which will become the key to this new organic structure of the Spanish Army.

The new 8x8 armored fighting vehicle will be useful for today's hybrid threat environments, or for the vast majority of scenarios to which current security challenges will lead us. The vehicle will be designed to carry out current low-intensity military operations, especially in Africa.

The VCR will offer more mobility, firepower and protection that all wheeled armored vehicles in service with the Spanish army. The new vehicle is based on the Piranha 5, 8x8 armored vehicle manufactured by the company General Dynamics European Land Systems.

The Spanish army could order around 1,000 VCR vehicles in 12 configurations. The first batch of five vehicles will be delivered to the Spanish Legion for trial tests in early 2021 and the first production series of the VCR wheeled armored vehicles is planned to enter in service with the Spanish army in 2022.