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December 23, 2000
Germany is developing a new eight-wheeled armored car to provide armored support for air transportable units. The New Armored Wheeled Vehicle exists only as a mock-up; the first prototype will not drive out of the Rheinmetall Landsystems factory at Kassel until sometime in 2002. The vehicle is based on work done by Thyssen Henshel on its TH400 demonstrator 6x6 vehicle, which used a new suspension system to achieve high cross-country mobility. (Thyssen has, since then, been absorbed into Rheinmetall Landsystems.) At least two variants (armored personnel carrier and tank destroyer) will be built. The tank destroyer will use a low-recoil smoothbore 105mm cannon in a two-man turret. The object of building a second new eight-wheeled armored car (Germany is already busy building the Anglo-British Multi-Role Armored Vehicle) is to produce one that weighs under 20 tons and will fit into a C-130 transport plane. The NAWV is to have a road speed of 100 kilometers per hour and a range of 800 kilometers. Current design theory calls for an amphibious vehicle with two propellers.--Stephen V Cole
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