Piranha V is a heavy 8x8 wheeled infantry fighting vehicle, being the latest model in the Mowag's Piranha family of APCs.

Designed by General Dynamics European Land Systems - Mowag GmbH, this heavy armoured vehicle has already been chosen by Denmark, Romania and Spain to enter service within their armed forces.

The 8x8 Piranha 5 armored personnel carrier has a lenght of 8 m (26 ft), a width of 2.99 m (9.8 ft) and a height of 2.34 m (7.7 ft).

Beside the driver, commander and gunner, the swiss-american APC can accommodate eight passengers.

Engine

Piranha 5 comes with an 430 kW (577 hp) MTU 6V199 TE21 diesel engine coupled with ZF 7HP902S transmission.

Both Spanish and Danish armed forces choose to replace the factory-standard engine with 480 kW (644 hp) Scania DC13 diesel engine manufactured in Spain by SAPA. Also the ZF 7HP902S transmission was replaced with SAPA SW624. Both Spanish and Danish vehicles, witch will be manufactured locally will also benefit from an 75 kW auxiliary power.

Remains to be seen what engine and transmission will be installed on the Romanian Piranhas which will be manufactured at Bucharest Mechanical Plant.

Armament

Both Spanish Army and Spanish Navy Marines will operate Piranha 5. The carriers that will equip the Spanish Marines will replace the M60A3 TTS tanks and will be equiped with 120 mm guns.

The Romanian variant will be fitted with Elbit UT30MK2 unmanned turret. The turret will be equiped with a 30 mm gun and a 7.62 mm machine gun. At least for the moment, the romanian Piranha 5's will not be equiped with anti-tank missiles, although Romania has large stocks of Spike AT missiles.

Piranha V IFV is not amphibious, although GDELS has taken into consideration the development of an amphibious version.

Having a hydropneumatic 8×8 wheeled suspension, this 8x8 armoured personnel carrier can reach a speed of 100 km/h (62 mph) and has an operational range of 1,000 km (620 mi).

Operators

- Monégasque Carabiniers – 2 Piranha 5 APC

Future Operators

- Denmark - 309 vehicles that will be locally assembled

- Spain - more than 348 vechicles will enter service with the Spanish Army and Spanish Navy Marines. The vehicles will be assembled in Spain.

- Romania - 227 Piranha 5 IFV will enter service with Romanian Army. The first 30 carriers will be manufactured at the Mowag facility in Switzerland, while the remaining 197 vehicles, will be assembled at Uzina Mecanica Bucuresti (Bucharest Mechanical Plant), a subsidiary of the Romanian state-owned company ROMARM.