The Spanish BMR VRAC reappears in Ukraine as a 'Mad Max'-style armored vehicle

Following the start of the full-scale Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, Spain delivered several armored vehicles to Ukraine.

The rare prototype of the Spanish BMR armored vehicle that appeared in Ukraine
The origin of the two BMR armored ambulances that Spain is going to deliver to Ukraine

Information about these vehicles has been very scarce at the official level, especially regarding the BMR 6x6 armored vehicles, a model still in active service with the Spanish Army and of which only a few examples were delivered to Ukraine. Official sources only confirmed the delivery of two armored vehicles of this type, specifically two BMR ambulances by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), an agency dependent on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in January 2024.

So far, those two BMR ambulances have not appeared in any photos released from Ukraine. It is unknown to which unit they were assigned, if they were finally delivered to that country. However, another Spanish BMR appeared in Ukraine by surprise, without any official announcement about its delivery. I spoke about it here in September 2023, when Ukraine Weapons Tracker, now Polymarket Intel, released the image of this vehicle that you can see below these lines.

This was a rare prototype of the BMR: the BMR VRAC (Rescue Vehicle in Catastrophic Areas), developed by the Spanish company Pegaso in the late 1980s to act in catastrophes at nuclear power plants, chemical industries or petrochemical complexes. The project was discarded and the BMR VRAC was abandoned for years at the Santa Barbara Sistemas facilities in Paracuellos de Jarama (Madrid). Two years ago I published this photo of the abandoned vehicle, published in the book "BMR. The armored vehicles of the Spanish Army" (Galland Books, 2008) by José María Manrique García and Luis Molina Franco.

After almost two years without being seen, yesterday the Facebook page of the "Tsunami" Assault Regiment published this image of the BMR VRAC, converted into an armored vehicle in the style of the "Mad Max" movies, with an anti-drone cage surrounding its entire body.

The "Tsunami" Assault Regiment is part of the "Lyut" Joint Assault Brigade of the National Police of Ukraine, a combat unit that is part of the so-called Offensive Guard, established by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in 2022 with elements of the National Police, the National Guard, and the Border Guard. The purpose of this unit is to clear the territories being liberated by the Ukrainian Army, freeing regular military units from tasks related to the occupation of those places, allowing them to concentrate on fighting the Russians.

The use of the BMR VRAC in these tasks in Ukraine highlights a reality: it is no longer a suitable vehicle for combat, although the Spanish Army has no choice but to continue using it in combat units, awaiting its replacement, the VCR Dragon 8x8.

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Main photo: Штурмовий полк «Цунамі».