This Brazilian Armored Vehicle Is A 40,000 Pound Amphibious Beast

Brazil, and South America as a whole, is home to some of the toughest terrain on earth. There are large swathes of rainforest, swamp, mountains, and whatever else you might think of. As a result, traversing that terrain with anything other than a huge military vehicle might be a tough ask. 

Enter the Guarani, a six-wheel drive amphibious armored vehicle made with the help of Italian company Iveco and the Brazilian Army. Like other amphibious military vehicles, the Guarani is huge. Empty, it weighs 33,069 pounds. When it’s loaded and set up for amphibious operations, it can weigh up to 42,990 pounds. It is also over 22-and-a-half feet long.

It’s primarily used as an armored personnel carrier and in that configuration, it can carry a crew of three alongside eight additional soldiers. However, Brazil and Iveco designed the Guarani so it can be modular. That not only means different weapons can be mounted, but it can also be used for search and rescue and a mobile command center. 

Under the hood is an 8.7-liter turbo diesel inline-six that generates 375 horsepower. On land, that gives it a top speed of 56 miles per hour. In the water, through its pair of propellers, that speed drops a bit to just over 4 miles per hour. 

As far as armament. It can carry whatever is mounted to the roof turret. That includes a .50-caliber machine gun, a 7.62-millimeter machine gun, a 30-millimeter cannon, a 40-millimeter grenade launcher, or even an anti-aircraft weapons system made by Saab.

On the armor end, it’s made of steel and hardened to withstand mines of improvised explosive devices. Additionally, all that heft gives it strength to tow “vehicle of same class”-worth of weight, according to Iveco. Meaning, that if another Guarani gets in a jam, you can tow one out. Iveco also notes that it can be transported within the cargo bay of a C-130 Hercules cargo plane, or the Brazilian-made Embraer KC-390 Millennium.