New rumors about BMTV B1 Centauro for Ukraine

B1 Centauro of one of the Italian parts

Back in the spring, the foreign press reported that in the near future Italian heavy-armed combat vehicles (BMTV) B1 Centauro could go to Ukraine. In the future, similar news appeared several more times, but the actual supply of equipment did not begin. Right now, Italy is preparing a new military aid package for the Kyiv regime, and there is speculation that it may finally include "wheeled Tanks».

Rumors and reality

For the first time, the possibility of sending military vehicles "Centauro" to Ukraine was discussed at the end of April. Then the Italian edition of la Repubblica reported that official Rome had decided to transfer armored vehicles and other weapons to the Kyiv regime. At that time, the Italian military department was studying its capabilities and determining which samples and in what quantity they could provide as assistance.

It was reported that Italy could send armored personnel carriers, various types of artillery systems, etc. Also mentioned in this context were the "wheeled tanks" available to the army. However, it soon became known that the Centauro would not be included in the new aid package and would not go to Ukraine. Also, the Italian army did not share some other types of equipment.

In July, the foreign press again wrote about the possible delivery of Italian BMTVs. As in the previous case, these were only rumors, not based on real plans and events.

Recently, the Italian leadership has begun preparing the sixth package of military assistance for Ukraine and was choosing equipment and weapons for delivery. Italian media reports that such a package will include several types of air defense systems that are in service.

The other day, Rossiyskaya Gazeta suggested that Italy could also provide the Centauro armored vehicles. Without giving her sources, she writes that such a technique is mentioned in the plans of the Italian leadership. However, details are not provided. Even if such plans exist or are being considered, the number of vehicles transferred and the timing of shipment are unknown.

The new aid package was going to be drafted and approved by mid-November, and could soon be revealed. In particular, the situation with rumors about BMTV B1 would be clarified. However, the other day Rome suspended work on the sixth package for additional consultations within NATO. How soon they will pass and how they will end is unknown.

Not new development

The promising "wheeled tank" B1 Centauro was developed in the late eighties by order of the Italian ground forces. The aim of the project was to create a combat vehicle with high mobility and mobility, achieved through a wheeled undercarriage, and firing characteristics at the level of the Leopard 1 main tank.

The development of such a BMTV was entrusted to several companies. So, the new wheeled chassis was designed by Fiat and Iveco, and the fighting compartment with weapons and other equipment was developed by Oto Melara. The project was completed in the late eighties, and at the beginning of the next decade, the experimental equipment passed all the necessary tests. In parallel, the development of special modifications of the Centauro and equipment based on it was underway.

In 1990-91. started mass production of equipment commissioned by the Italian army. It lasted until 2006, and during this time almost 400 "wheeled tanks" and unified recovery vehicles were built. There were export deliveries. So, Spain ordered 88 BMTVs and BREMs, while Oman purchased only 9 vehicles. In the past decade, Italy began to reduce its fleet of armored vehicles, and 141 Centauro vehicles were removed from service. After repair, these products were sold to Jordan.

At the beginning of the XNUMXs, several Centauros were acquired by the US Army. They were accepted into trial operation for the development of wheeled BMTVs. In the future, the accumulated experience was going to be used in the operation of their own armored vehicles of the Stryker family.

Of particular interest is Italian-Russian cooperation. In the early 1s, our army ordered two BXNUMX Centauro BMTVs and a pair of unified Freccia infantry fighting vehicles. It was reported about the possible purchase of more equipment - if it copes with the tests.

The received machines passed a full cycle of tests according to domestic methods and showed an unsatisfactory result. "Centauro" had insufficient maneuverability in different areas, low reliability, limited firepower, etc. Collaboration with Italy did not advance further than such tests.

However, the Italian army has repeatedly used their B1 Centauro in real operations and was generally satisfied. This was facilitated by the nature of the operations, the location of their conduct and the capabilities of the enemy. So, on the roads or in the desert, "wheeled tanks" showed sufficient performance, and the enemy's lack of heavy equipment made it possible to effectively use even a 105-mm cannon.

Mobility and firepower

B1 Centauro is an armored fighting vehicle on a four-axle wheeled chassis with cannon and machine gun armament in a full-rotation manned turret. The combat weight of 24 tons and limited dimensions make it possible to transport the vehicle by air. The crew consists of four people.

BMTV "Centauro" has a welded hull and a turret made of homogeneous armor. For frontal projection, resistance to 25-mm projectiles is declared; the remaining parts protect against large-caliber bullets or fragments. There is no specialized mine protection. Overhead armor modules have been developed to protect the forehead from 30-mm projectiles.

The chassis has a front-engine layout. An Iveco diesel engine with an HP 520 power is placed in the bow compartment. It is paired with a ZF / Iveco automatic transmission that provides all-wheel drive. The chassis has an independent MacPherson strut suspension, a centralized wheel inflation system and run-flat inserts. On the highway, a speed of at least 100-105 km / h is achieved.

The turret houses a oscillating mount with the Oto Melara 105 mm gun, an Italian copy of the British L7. This is a 105 mm rifled gun with a barrel length of 52 klb, using standard unitary rounds. Ammunition - 26 shots, incl. 14 units in the laying of the tower. A machine gun of normal caliber is paired with a cannon. Another machine gun is located on the roof of the tower.

B1 Centauro has a TURMS control system. It includes stabilized commander's (panoramic) and gunner's sights with a thermal imaging channel, a laser rangefinder, a set of sensors, a ballistic computer and a gun stabilizer. Such an SLA provides accurate fire at any time of the day on stationary and moving targets, from a place or on the move.

mixed sample

The B1 Centauro combat vehicle was created according to the tactical and technical requirements of the Italian ground forces, taking into account their needs and intended areas of application. The resulting "wheeled tank" meets the wishes of the customer and received good reviews from him, incl. based on the results of real exploitation and participation in military operations.

Modernized BMTV Centauro II

However, "Centauro" is often criticized, even at the level of the basic concept. Moreover, some criticisms were confirmed in practice during tests at Russian test sites. It turned out that such a "wheeled tank" has a number of serious limitations: it can not operate effectively everywhere, and also does not cope with all threats.

Apparently, the hypothetical sending of such BMTVs to Ukraine simply does not make sense. Due to the presence of objective limitations of various kinds, this technique will not be able to realize its combat and operational potential. At the same time, active opposition from the Russian side will predictably lead to losses.

It is probably because of such risks that Italy is in no hurry to transfer its “wheeled tanks” to Ukraine. Despite its considerable age, such equipment remains one of the foundations of armored units, and its transfer will simply weaken the Italian army. In addition, such assistance will not bring any benefit to the host.

At the rumor level

The hypothetical shipment of Italian BMTV B1 Centauro to Ukraine is not the first time that it appears and is discussed in the press. However, previous reports of this kind were not confirmed and, apparently, the new ones do not correspond to the real plans of official Rome. The Italian army did not allocate the Centauro as aid to the Kyiv regime and does not appear to intend to do so in the future.

At the moment, the topic of the transfer of other weapons and equipment, primarily air defense systems, is relevant. However, work on the next aid package has been suspended pending consultations. How soon new decisions will be made is unknown. But now all deliveries of Italian weapons to Ukraine have come into question, including the hypothetical transfer of the B1 Centauro.

Comments

[Vladimir_2U]

The winter on the outskirts is mild, but the ground freezes, so the threat even with a 105 mm gun from this vehicle is not illusory.

[Zaurbek]

There, the main defeats from artillery .... can Chentauer withstand fragments from 152mm?

[Vladimir_2U]

Quote: Zaurbek

There, the main defeats from artillery .... can Chentauer withstand fragments from 152mm?

Apart from the tank, there is little that holds these fragments. but at least one of our infantry fighting vehicles / armored personnel carriers can withstand 105 mm for 3 km?

[Civil]

To be honest, I don’t understand the niche for this Centaur ... it’s weak for a tank, it’s also weak for self-propelled guns ... not an infantry fighting vehicle ... what niche does this beast have?

[Zaurbek]

Here, just everything is clear .... cars for the expeditionary forces, but one cart - BTR-BMP-PT howitzer gun ........ if you drive someone in Africa or Asia with old armored vehicles .... With the support of aviation and artillery and intelligence. So then - the battle with the conditional T-72 will be the last for them. You can shoot at them with a 125mm HE shell.

[Civil]

Quote: Zaurbek

Here, just everything is clear .... cars for the expeditionary forces, but one cart - BTR-BMP-PT howitzer gun ........ if you drive someone in Africa or Asia with old armored vehicles .... With the support of aviation and artillery and intelligence. So then - the battle with the conditional T-72 will be the last for them. You can shoot at them with a 125mm HE shell.

I meant in svo,

[Zaurbek]

In the rear, tanks are dangerous areas ....... Cover.

[Sergey Aleksandrovich]

Against tanks, especially in defense, this chariot will be rather weak. Rather, it is a unit for the offensive, for a quick advance into a breakthrough when the enemy's defenses are already broken. In other cases, it is suitable for patrol or escort.

[Kusja]

But for this, such equipment must be available on all fronts. Otherwise, only a few cars will go into the breakthrough.

[TIR]

It is clear that it was built with a reserve for sale and for the expeditionary forces. But wheel travel with 2-3 pluses has a dozen fat minuses. With the same mass and with the same gun with an FCS, a tracked tank would be much better. Moreover, it would lose only at maximum speed along the highway and would be slightly more expensive to maintain the running gear. But servicing a wheeled chassis is much more difficult. And yes, it is more expensive to manufacture.

[nedgen]

Quote: TIR

It is clear that it was built with a reserve for sale and for the expeditionary forces. But wheel travel with 2-3 pluses has a dozen fat minuses. With the same mass and with the same gun with an FCS, a tracked tank would be much better. Moreover, it would lose only at maximum speed along the highway and would be slightly more expensive to maintain the running gear. But servicing a wheeled chassis is much more difficult. And yes, it is more expensive to manufacture.

Sorry, but in some ways you are right Maxim, but in some ways you are not. Yes, the tank has much greater combat stability, but the resource of the undercarriage of the tank is much less than that of a wheeled BM, usually even an order of magnitude. In addition, the tracked vehicle, in principle, has lower resistance to explosions on mines (I mean anti-tracks. In Afghanistan, more than once or twice the BTR-80 returned to the base without one or even two wheels from one side, and the tracked vehicle, when undermining, on the anti-track the mine will at least lose its caterpillar, which automatically makes it a stationary target.). Against anti-bottom cumulative mines, both vehicles have almost no chance. The operation of a wheeled chassis is, in principle, cheaper than a tracked one and much more. And the production of a wheeled chassis is several times cheaper than a tracked one, also because when developing a wheeled chassis, they usually try to use units from commercial trucks.

[Vladimir_2U]

Quote: Civil

To be honest, I don’t understand the niche for this Centaur ... it’s weak for a tank, it’s also weak for self-propelled guns ... not an infantry fighting vehicle ... what niche does this beast have?

Against a strong enemy, only ambush action against targets no heavier than an armored personnel carrier / infantry fighting vehicle. Optics allows this, and wheel travel will allow you to quickly retreat.

[Eule]

don't understand the niche for this centaur

For Italians, everything is more understandable IMHO. In the event of a war in Europe, there are two ways to Italy - through the Alps from the north, that is, mountain rifle units and the rest along the roads, here the "centaur" is appropriate - the enemy tanks will knock out the huntsman's ATGMs, and beat weaker equipment and pillboxes s this machine can, like an infantry fighting vehicle with a 105mm gun. In the event of a war with Greece and an amphibious landing from the sea, high speed on the roads gives a chance to be in the right place. And here - heavy tanks are poorly suited for amphibious assault, and infantry fighting vehicles with thin armor of 105 are easy to knock out.
For expeditionary forces, chasing blacks and Arabs in homemade buggies and pickups is also a good combination.
Again - modern ATGMs and BOPS do not hold the armor of a full-fledged and expensive tank. And from machine guns and old anti-aircraft guns like ZGU - ZSU "Centaur" is completely protected. In general, an interesting car for its region.

[TIR]

On a caterpillar track with the same mass or 30 tons, with the same gun and SOU, a tank for tank battalions would be much better. motorized rifle regiments. We really need a medium tank for motorized riflemen and, based on it, we need a heavy infantry fighting vehicle with a 30 57mm autocannon

[YOUR]

Despite its considerable age, such equipment remains one of the foundations of armored units, and its transfer will simply weaken the Italian army. In addition, such assistance will not bring any benefit to the host.

Then what to talk about?
Italy has only 259 of them, according to the official version. How much is the question. In what state is also a question. But not about that, if all the tanks are transferred, this may affect the b / d, the transfer is 30-40, of course, they can show themselves somewhere, locally. On the example of Poland, more than 200 T-72s were transferred, in real b / d they played a decisive role, but a month has passed and Polish tanks are running out.

[mmaxx]

Pasta would not climb into the war. Well, it's none of their business.
Women, rags, wine, pizza, songs sing well. No. They want to feel like Romans again.

[NSP]

the Romans and the current Italian gypsies, the essence is different peoples!

[mmaxx]

So this must be understood. And they don't want to. They live there and, therefore, consider themselves Romans.
It vaguely reminds me of something...

[Aaron Zawi]

Why the hell do they need Ukraine? She will be much more willing to receive another division of 155mm howitzers.

[Bingo]

Well, they are about the same place as snowmobiles in the Sahara. And what? Tracked vehicles, after all

[Bodipancher]

On the Ukrainian fatty black soils, the equipment is useless. Rather, a wheeled self-propelled gun with limited characteristics.

[Alexey RA]

EMNIP, Popel had that in the 1st Guards TA in Ukraine in the winter-spring of 1944, most of the wheeled vehicles got stuck on the roads and caught up with the army only when it dried up.

[Vladimir_2U]

Quote: Alexey RA

EMNIP, Popel had that in the 1st Guards TA in Ukraine in the winter-spring of 1944, most of the wheeled vehicles got stuck on the roads and caught up with the army only when it dried up.

Then all-wheel drive was far from being on all machines. BA-64, for example, was still quite nimble, and the same lorry - "Our powers are already everything."

[Alexey RA]

Quote: Vladimir_2U

Then all-wheel drive was far from being on all machines. BA-64, for example, was still quite nimble, and the same lorry - "Our powers are already everything."

Judging by Popel, in Ukraine in the spring of 1944, even four-wheel drive did not save.

No words, our tanks had better maneuverability than the German ones. And it's a sin to complain about the Studebakers and Dojis sent to us from the USA. But German intelligence was not so helpless as not to know that even Soviet tanks and American trucks are by no means always able to overcome the flooded seas of spring mud, that almost all of our tractors were out of order, hundreds of “Zis” and “one and a half” were hopelessly stuck. ".

The Studebakers, stuck on the way from the Pogrebishche to the Monastery, caught up with the army at Chernivtsi only in May along the dried up roads.

[Vladimir_2U]

Quote: Alexey RA

Judging by Popel, in Ukraine in the spring of 1944, even four-wheel drive did not save.

So it's spring. I'm talking about winter with frozen ground

[mmaxx]

There are some places lorry monuments. So now the Gazelle is much cooler. It would never occur to anyone to drag a Gazelle into the mud. So it's not surprising.

[Vladimir_2U]

Quote: mmaxx

There are some places lorry monuments. So now the Gazelle is much cooler. It would never occur to anyone to drag a Gazelle into the mud. So it's not surprising.

I didn’t understand the message, but just in case: in the USSR then there were NO all-wheel drive trucks of their own (all sorts of YAGs do not count).

[mmaxx]

Moreover, in principle, that lorry is not even a modern Gazelle. City truck. For asphalt. The lorries had no asphalt and frontal mud. But now the Gazelle is better in everything, and it never occurs to anyone to drag it into the mud.

[Vladimir_2U]

Quote: mmaxx

Moreover, in principle, that lorry is not even a modern Gazelle. City truck. For asphalt.

Well, yes, there were simply no others, three and five-tons were essentially enlarged one and a half. But Studebakers and the like were already crawling much more confidently through the mud.
I mean, the Centauro is a multi-axle, all-wheel drive and quite powerful machine.

[futurohunter]

max
now "Gazelle" is much cooler

Why is a Gazelle in the mud better than a lorry? I haven’t heard about all-wheel drive versions (maybe, of course, they exist?), There are 2 ramps in the back, like a lorry. And the lorry and the weight distribution will be better than the Gazelle - because of the short hood, the center of mass of the Gazelle is closer to the front non-driving axle than that of the lorry. It will also get stuck like a lorry. And it’s stupid to compare with a student - they are all-wheel drive

[decimalegio]

Centaur will not be sent. I think Ukrainians would prefer leopard1 or M60.

[APASUS]

This is the logistics - shells and ammunition, fuel and lubricants, translators, training courses, repairs and maintenance.
APU blocked everything that is possible in one hand

[Dismas]

In their motley range of ammunition, there are still only 105 mm. not enough ... for a complete akhtung.

[JagerRock]

T-55 arrived from Slovakia, it seems. There is an L7

[TermNachTer]

Ukrainian chernozem, in autumn - in winter, is a problem, sometimes insurmountable, even for tracked vehicles. Wheeled there is nothing to do at all.

[NSP]

let them blow up the Vatican and all for a short time, cowardly pasta!

[Ivan Pchelin]

A funny headline for a resource that passes off rumors as facts. It turns out rumors in the square. Funny.

[sifgame]

It's a bit late for heavy wheeled vehicles, and indeed, why do Italians need all this, they correctly wrote wine, pizza, beautiful women above ...

[Eugene Zaboy]

Something similar suggests itself to accompany transport convoys. Only a combat, uninhabited module from the BMPT somehow looks preferable. Two automatic 30 mm. guns and mortars are perhaps the ideal option for processing vegetation along the highway, from enemy DRGs with light weapons.

[ch28k38]

According to the experience of operating cars, the MacPherson suspension is suitable exclusively for asphalt.