Some of the Dragón wheeled tanks ordered for the Spanish Army 348, a variant of the Piranha V from General Dynamics European Land Systems (GDELS), will be equipped with remote-controlled turrets that are also intended for the use of Spike LR anti-tank guided missiles. With one of the selected turrets, the Guardian 30 from Escribano Mechanical and Engineering (EME), the turret manufacturer and spike manufacturer Rafael, with its Spanish subsidiary PAP Tecnos, have completed the successful integration of the missile system in firing tests, as EME has announced.
The Guardian 30 turret is armed with a rapid-fire 30mm cannon as its main weapon and has also been given a dual Spike LR2 launcher on the right flank. For verification shooting, the turret was integrated on a D4 demonstrator of the 8×8 Dragon. According to EME, the first shot during the shooting campaign demonstrated that the specific requirements that the Spanish army had for the 8×8 were met. It is also the first Spike LR2 missile to be launched in Spain from a remotely operated station, demonstrating the versatility of the Spike missile family and the protection and attack capability that this integration has brought to the Guardian 30.
Editors / gwh