In addition to historical tales, who does not have in mind the bloody images of the film "Saving Private Ryan" of 1999, one of the most realistic cinematographic works on that June 6 of '44?
The landing operation on the Normandy coasts for the liberation of Europe, called Overlord, began at the 6.30 under the leadership of General Dwight Eisenhower, at the cost of thousands of deaths, many of which fell shortly after the LCVP landing craft - Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel - lowered the front shore towards the beach. The bank was definitely made of steel, the structure perhaps made of wood and aluminum. Arriving frontally was imperative.
Bunkers and unknowns
On the coastal dunes and in the rear of the windy Canale della Manica, a characteristic that is already disorienting, from the slits of hemispherical fortifications in reinforced concrete that are well camouflaged between the surrounding environment and scattered everywhere, the gusts of the Maschinengewehr MG42 started, which alternately but non-stop (just to cool the barrel in the oil) fired devastating 7,92x57, against very young soldiers, perhaps unaware of what awaited them that morning. Alongside the deadly MGs there were also rocket launchers and tanks that had to guarantee the impenetrability of the French coast.
Several conclusions could be drawn about the Normandy landings, despite the long American D Day planning that also saw the use of the Rupert - parachuted mannequins - as a disorienting and dissuasive element, but we could probably argue that, if then they could have used amphibious armored vehicles, the number of victims would have been much more contained.
At sea with a modern armored amphibian
"From the periscope glasses when you are still on board the ship but sealed inside the armored car, your eyes look at the horizon that connects the sea to the sky immediately after the ramp".
You are in the open sea and the survival instinct suggests many things to you, but you know that you have to engage the gear shifting position, raise the brake pedal and launch yourself towards that unsettling horizon with your team. A feeling that in some ways resembles the first jumps with a parachute, when a green light is on and it's late to ask questions ...
You do it for your country, this is the best antidote to indifferent indifference. You're a military man, a hero, that's for sure!
After an acceleration to give momentum to the 25 tons of the AVC, you feel that something is missing beneath you, you sink and you feel the thud with the sea that immediately makes you sway of different degrees in all directions and maybe you think that the structure could do not float or tip over.
The team is in understandable silence, it would not be correct for soldiers to talk about anxiety also because the procedures are now clear, instinctive because they are constantly repeated. From the driving seat you pass the power take off from the guide all-terrain to that vessel and the double and powerful propellers begin to stabilize by slightly raising the bow and taking you off the ship, until just before your land. Now the joystick is your steering wheel. Here, these could be the practical dynamics and the psychological sensations of a landing in the open sea for a modern armored vehicle.
AVC-P Personnel Carrier Variant
The maximum between tactical efficiency and versatility or better, a special vehicle rotated in a troop transport and first-line variant given the protection features. After several editions of Eurosatory many will have wondered by observing the competition why the giant Iveco Defense Vehicles, a company of the CNH holding company, had not yet had a tactical amphibian in the works.
The answer came to the great and historic collaboration between Iveco Defense Vehicles and Leonardo but also with a big name in the English industry, BAE Systems. With agreements presumably signed in the 2010 with the English company, a specific request was received from the US Marine Corps attributable to the Marine Personnel Carrier -MPC- program. A combination that led, after a race, to the signing of important results for the Italian industry, to which would be added other orders always for the supply of the super amphibious 8x8 with top secret variants to be allocated to the US Marine Corps.
The new AVC-P 8x8 starts from the base of the VBM Freccia, a sort of variant of the SuperAV Surface Performance Amphibious Vehicle, but without a turret and cannon used for landing troops. A machine that here could gradually replace the AAV7 crawler.
Transmission, engine and features
The technical data are very few unlike other renowned manufacturers of defense vehicles (for example Mercedes) that also point to the image of back stage like product promotion, during and after the launch of a vehicle. However, the hull should contain a transmission scheme of H-type motion, such as Freccia and Centauro, or two transmission shafts placed at the sides, a solution that guarantees good internal habitability by reducing the risk of perforation of the hull following an explosion.
At each individual wheel, by means of a gearbox, a semi-axle is engaged which reaches the wheel, while the eight adjustable suspensions descend inside a cylindrical shell up to the oscillating arm. Looking at the images, this should be the official configuration.
The structure on the base has an air space, just to guarantee a flat bottom suitable for navigation and anti-mine; in the automotive field we could define it as a sandwich, another reason to confirm the safety given by the isolation of the transmission parts. Even if well soundproofed, according to the needs, the conductor on board converses with the team using audio headphones as on helicopters. In addition to the first two steering axles it is not to be excluded that the third is also to reduce the maneuvering spaces, or that it has the spider function; lateral translation, certainly a higher and faster mobility than a crawler.
It mounts a seven-speed ZF automatic gearbox with reduction, retarder and torque converter that can be excluded shortly after the start, a custom on the "heavy" to keep the engine in line with the structure - as happens with double-clutch robots - in releases of accelerator.
As an engine, the top of the range for industrial uses of Iveco has been set up, namely an 6 in-line CURSOR 13 cylinder brought to 700 CV, a propeller that among other things is very popular in the USA and for civil use also has Natural Gas . It is a six-cylinder twenty-four valve controlled in pairs with a variable geometry turbocharger. Located at the front, it has a large grille as a side air intake for use on land, while in navigation the atmosphere is bypassed in a snorkel placed above the waterline and able to extend according to sea conditions.
Four exits, 3 trap doors and a rear service platform are contained in its measures of almost eight meters long by three in width, with a height of just over two and a half meters. Interesting is the functional light of the under-hull of forty-five centimeters, which in off road enters a versatile synergy with the wide angles of attack and exit. Here the power is not lacking and the couple is skyrocketing, so despite its heavy armored bulk, all-terrain recalls the versatility of the ORT VTMM. It could be baptized as a safe "Sea Bear", standing side by side in our FFAAs, between healthy abbreviations and nicknames, at the San Lince.
For the record I have to add that there is also the 6 wheeled version called VBTP-MR Guaraní. 3 4 rear footpeg hatches exits
A motorboat at 8 wheels
By raising the front breakwater barrier and switching the power of its Cursor 13 to the propellers, our ACV with great ease can take off or, as we have already said, dive offshore even at more than 12 miles from the coast. It is not clear if it has navigation lights, but it is very probable, what is certain is that thanks to its speed of at least 8 knots it is able to advance even with sea at 3 strength and beyond.
The sloping structure concentrated in the center, like a keel, guarantees mass stability both on the road and in the open sea. As can be understood, it can enter in floodable basins or be transported. Inside there is room for 13 soldiers seated on special raised seats and three operators including the conductor. On the road the performance of the SuperAV records a range of 800 km and a self-limited speed that can exceed 100km / h.
Then the news arrives
I wanted to develop something interesting about tires Runflat with internal core and pressure regulation, highlighting how the development of armored and amphibious aircraft has made the difference and security since the distant June 1944 in the English Channel. But just Sunday 10, while I was at the PC, I see three flash alert , one of the SMD and the other two from the agencies Adnkronos and ANSA. Almost in correspondence with a day that we cannot forget, the 12 November 2003, massacre of Nassiriya, five of our boys are victims of a tremendous IED explosion in Iraq and promptly rescued by an efficient MEDEVAC. I therefore preferred to interrupt the piece out of respect but also to pay homage to our heroes in service both at the 9 ° Col Moschin, and in the GOI, the Navy raiders. I don't know how much will be discussed and I don't propose comments; for all the reservists, however, they are brothers, even mine.
I dedicate the article:
To our heroes of the 9 ° Parachute Assault Regiment Col Moschin "from the Thunderbolt the impetus"; Group of divers and raiders of the Navy GOI "E fluctibus irruit in hostem".
