Belgium grounds entire Piranha fleet amid safety concerns
The Belgian army has temporarily grounded all its Piranha IIIC armored vehicles due to serious technical problems needing investigation and resolution. The Piranha IIIC vehicles have been used by the Belgian army as a substitute for tanks, which the country phased out in 2014.
8:43 PM EDT, October 22, 2024
The Belgian Directorate General of Material Resources (DGMR) emphasized that safety is its top priority, and it aims to avoid unnecessary risks until the situation is fully understood.
Issues with Belgian Piranha IIIC
According to the Opex360 portal, it is quite rare for an entire fleet of military vehicles to be grounded because of a technical issue. Such situations are usually reserved for aircraft or helicopters, suggesting that the problem with the Belgian Piranha IIIC armored vehicles is significant.
The DGMR decided to ground all Piranha IIIC vehicles after cracks were discovered in the chassis of several units during maintenance. The Belgian army currently has 127 Piranha IIIC units in various versions, including infantry fighting vehicles, fire support vehicles, command vehicles, and medical service transports. The most common version is equipped with a 0.50 caliber machine gun and has a transport compartment that can carry up to ten soldiers. On the other hand, the fire support vehicles are equipped with a 90 mm cannon. These vehicles feature an 8x8 drive system design.
A NATO country without tanks and with problematic transporters
Media outlets emphasize that this situation is not the first instance of concern regarding the Belgian army's equipment. They note that the DGMR has suspended the operation of the Piranha IIIC for the third time in five years.
Belgium uses these wheeled armored vehicles to compensate for the lack of tanks—Belgium phased out its last Leopard 1 tanks in 2014. Abandoning such equipment was once common among NATO countries. The Netherlands, for example, adopted a similar approach but has since reversed this decision, opting to acquire the latest Leopard 2A8 tanks.
The Belgian Ministry of Defense announced that it is collaborating with the Swiss company MOWAG to return as many Piranha IIIC armored vehicles to service as possible. They were originally planned to serve in the Belgian army for several more years until the acquisition of multi-purpose armored personnel carriers like the VBMR Griffon.
