{"id":49759,"date":"2022-12-16T21:27:04","date_gmt":"2022-12-16T20:27:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=49759"},"modified":"2024-12-16T03:00:53","modified_gmt":"2024-12-16T02:00:53","slug":"the-new-vcr-dragon-armored-vehicle-of-the-spanish-army-and-the-controversy-over-its-size","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2022\/12\/16\/the-new-vcr-dragon-armored-vehicle-of-the-spanish-army-and-the-controversy-over-its-size\/","title":{"rendered":"The new VCR Drag\u00f3n armored vehicle of the Spanish Army and the controversy over its size"},"content":{"rendered":"

Next Tuesday, December 20, the first seven Dragon Wheeled Combat Vehicles (VCR) will be delivered to the Spanish Army.<\/p>\n

The new Spanish VCR Drag\u00f3n shows its missile with artificial intelligence to destroy tanks<\/a><\/rel>
\nSoldiers from Spain and Latvia train to fight in a wooded and snowy environment<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n

As we have already seen here, in 2020 the Spanish Ministry of Defense signed the purchase of 348 vehicles of this type<\/a> for an amount of 1,740 million euros. It is expected that they will replace the BMR-600 armored vehicles and the VEC M-1 Cavalry Exploration Vehicles.<\/strong> Currently, the Army has 648 BMR-600 and 135 VEC M-1, so that 348 Dragon VCRs are not enough. Already in 2020 there was talk of a second phase in which another 348 vehicles would be contracted and a third with 287 more armored vehicles.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Already before its entry into service, a controversy has been generated about the size of the Dragon VCR<\/strong>. In January, Jes\u00fas M. P\u00e9rez Triana, a security and defense analyst, published an interesting article on his blog Guerras Posmodernas<\/a> addressing the issue of the excessive size of this armored vehicle and the challenges that this can pose for its transportation aircraft<\/strong>, not only because of its size, but also because of its weight, which is estimated at 35 tons<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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According to the Spanish Ministry of Defense, the Airbus A400M Atlas It has a maximum cargo capacity of 37 tons<\/a>, and as the CISDE Observatory<\/a> has pointed out the cargo hold of this plane measures 17.7 meters long, 4 meters wide and 3.85 meters high, which would allow it to be accommodated. The problem comes from the fact that the A400M's ramp only supports a weight of 32 tons<\/strong>, a limit that would exceed the Dragon VCR by 3 tons.<\/p>\n

Germany already ran into this same problem two years ago<\/a> with its 8x8 Rheinmetall Boxer armored vehicles<\/strong>, which also weigh 35 tons. However, the Luftwaffe has already carried out load tests on the Boxer successfully, due to the fact that it is a modular vehicle: a mission module is installed at the rear<\/strong> according to the needs of the operation, which can be disassemble for air transport. In the event of having to transport two Boxers, the Luftwaffe would need three A400Ms:<\/strong> two to transport the vehicles and one more to transport the two mission modules.<\/p>\n