Spanish Army receives first six VCZAP Castor armored engineering vehicles.

As reported by the Spanish Ministry of Defense on December 13, 2023, the Spanish Army received the first six Castor Combat Engineer Vehicles (VCZAP) during a ceremony at the GDELS Santa Bárbara Sistemas (GDELS-SBS) factory in Alcalá de Guadaira, Seville. This delivery is part of a larger contract that includes a total of 36 vehicles, with the remaining 30 scheduled for delivery throughout 2024.
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The VCZAP Castor armored engineering vehicle, based on the ASCOD 2 platform, was displayed at the FEINDEF 2023 exhibition. (Picture source: Army Recognition)

Under the Pizarro Phase 2 program, GDELS-SBS is contracted to supply a batch of 36 VCZAP vehicles, along with 83 Pizarro infantry fighting vehicles, to the Spanish Army. This includes a prototype of the Castor and 35 production units, each equipped with a Mini Samson remote turret armed with a 12.7 mm caliber heavy machine gun.

The ceremony was attended by María Amparo Valcarce, the State Secretary for Defense (SEDEF); General Amador Enseñat y Berea, the Chief of Staff of the Spanish Army (JEME), and Admiral Aniceto Rosique Nieto, the Director General of Armaments and Material (DIGAM). During this event, General Enseñat y Berea commented on achieving the Army's goal to provide its engineers with greater protection and mobility.

Juan Escriña, the General Director of GDELS-Santa Bárbara Sistemas, stated that this delivery marked the introduction of the first vehicle designed and manufactured in Spain specifically for the sapper and engineer units of the Armed Forces. He emphasized that this was the first new weapons system for these army units in more than fifty years. The VCZAP Castor is intended to replace the Army's older M-113 VCZ sapper vehicles.

The Ministry of Defense announced the completion of qualification tests for the Castor Combat Engineer Vehicle a year ago. These tests, which started in April 2019 and were supported by the X Engineer Battalion, included remote weapon firing, breach opening and marking, excavation, performance checks, trench crossing, and wading.

Based on the ASCOD 2 Pizarro platform, the VCZAP Castor armored engineering vehicle (AEV) is capable of tasks such as leveling, filling trenches, and clearing obstacles. It can assist in river crossing operations and can be equipped with a bulldozer blade, plow, roller, breach marking system, and a heavy mine-clearing hose launcher system type MICLIC (M-58).

The Castor shares its powertrain with the Pizarro Phase II, which includes an MTU 8V 199 TE20 engine of 720 HP from MTU and a SAPA SG850 binary logic transmission. Its platform also serves as the foundation for the development of the Pizarro Phase III.

The VCZAP Castor weighs between 31 and 35 tons and can carry up to 13 tons of mission elements, armor, and weaponry. It is also equipped with all-weather target acquisition systems, operated from within the vehicle and featuring a thermal camera, which enables accurate firing while the vehicle is in motion.