Saur 2 is an 8x8 wheeled amphibious armored personnel carrier developed by ROMARM and manufactured at Uzina Automecanica Moreni. Being the successor of Saur 1 8x8 APC, Saur 2 came with major improvements over the previous model.

Saur 2 has a redesigned hull and offers better protection than Saur 1, which had a STANAG 4569 protection of Level 1. The second member of the Saur APC family also has an all-welded steell hull but provides STANAG 4569 Level 2, 2a protection under the wheels and Level 1 under the chassis.

Dimensions

At a weight of 16 t (16000 kg), Saur 2 measures 7.96 m in lenght, 3.04 m in width and has a height of 2.34 m. It's ground clearance is 0.42 m.

The comfort of the vehicle has also been improved over the previous model. Beside the driver, commander and gunner, Saur 2 can acommodate eight infantrymen. The access of the eight soldiers in the vehicle is made through a ramp at the rear of the vehicle.

Mobility

Saur 2 is an armoured personnel carrier with high mobility.

The 8x8 armored vehicle has a gradient of 30 degrees, a side slope of 20 degrees, can cross ditches of 1.5 m in width and can climb over vertical obstacles of 0.5 m in height.

The maximum speed on road is 100 km/h and on water it can reach a speed of 10 km/h. Has a minimum operational range of 600 km.

Armament

Saur 2 is a versatile platform that can be fitted with a wide variety weapons.

Unfortunately, it never entered serial production, but most probably the standard version would have come fitted with a RCWS-RO (Remote Controlled Weapon Station-RO) turret, equiped with 12,7 mm or 7,62 mm (caliber) machine guns.

Also there have been other turrets and weapons configurations fitted on the prototypes of the romanian 8x8 wheeled APC.

An example is the OWS-25R turret which is also integrated on the romanian MLI-84M Jder IFV. This turret has an 25 mm Oerlikon KBA autocannon, a 7,62 mm machine gun and two Spike LR anti-tank missiles.

Another proposed configuration was an air defence vehicle, and, in this regard, a Crotale missile system was mounted on top of the carrier.

Propulsion

Saur 2 APC is powered by an 326 HP EURO 3 diesel engine and, has a power-to-weight ratio of 20.3 hp/t.

The propulsion of the vehicle on water is provided by two water jet propellers.