I'm moving from being impressed by some of the procurement decisions of the Brazilian Marine Corps, to be down right giddy.
Yeah. Giddy like a school girl.
I present the latest exhibits in why I'm impressed. The above M113 has been modified by Israel IMI and I'm being told that its a flotation kit.
Along with horsepower and other upgrades, coupled with the buy of AAV's from USMC stocks (that will also be upgraded to the latest standard) with lastly, the purchase of a few more Piranha IIIC vehicles and you have the makings of a fully mechanized Brazilian Marine Corps.
And they didn't have to bust the bank to do it. Did I mention that the old M113 could carry approx 10 Marines? Did I mention that with these upgrades it should be an extremely viable vehicle in expeditionary warfare? Did I mention that there is a glut of MRAPs on the market so if the need should arise they can be acquired cheaply and quickly (so there really isn't a need for these vehicles to be built to resist IEDs...if you run into them then you simply pull those vehicles from storage)?
Congratulations to the Marines from Brazil. They cracked code and solved the issue of mechanization and budget with a few simple, common sense solutions.
