The war in Ukraine will soon reach its two-year ‘anniversary’. It’s been going on for so long and the end is nowhere in sight. The defenders of Ukraine need tools to protect their country and some of those tools are literally brand new, getting their first taste of action right in the middle of a large armed conflict in Europe.
One of these new tools is the Rheinmetall Caracal. It is a new light off-road vehicle, based on the Mercedes-Benz G-Class chassis. The G-Class, of course, was developed with military applications in mind and this new vehicle is rugged, tough and versatile.
The production of Caracal started just this year. Back in November, Rheinmetall announced that 5 Caracal vehicles will be sent to Ukraine by the end of the year and it is believed that they are already in the hands of the defenders of Ukraine.
Caracal features a highly modular construction – all kinds of protective panels and weapons can be mounted to it. Image credit: Rheinmetall
The Caracal is an air-transportable off-roader, primarily aimed at airborne and special operations missions. It weighs under 4.4 tonnes and is just a bare frame, to which various pieces of armoured protection or other equipment can be mounted. Large helicopters like the CH-47F Chinook and CH-53K King Stallion can transport up to two vehicles inside, but the Caracal is happy to travel underslung under the aircraft.
One of the more interesting features of the Caracal is the Rheinmetall’s Rapid Obscuring System (Rosy), which allows this vehicle to deploy a multispectral smoke screen to hide from enemies. All kinds of weapons can be mounted on the Caracal frame, which makes it a very versatile platform.
In images, it can be seen with grenade launchers, heavy machine guns, and anti-tank missiles. The Caracal is an extremely versatile platform – weapons and ballistic protection can be configured for a specific mission. Different Caracals can perform personnel transport, reconnaissance, field ambulance, command post, freight and other duties
The fact that the Caracal is based on the latest G-Class chassis is a great feature too. This means that parts are readily available pretty much everywhere in the world. And the chassis components should be reliable, as they are in such a massive production. Rheinmetall offers full life cycle support over 20 years for Caracal, which shows their confidence in the reliability of this off-roader.
Caracal is based on the Mercedes-Benz G-Class chassis, which means that parts for it are readily available everywhere. Image credit: Rheinmetall
Speaking of the chassis, Caracal has an old-school 6-cylinder Mercedes-Benz diesel, pushing out 183 kW of power and 600 Nm of torque. It’s enough for the Caracal to reach 130 km/h on the road and be quite a formidable force off-road. For example, the manufacturer says that Caracal can climb up a 60 % gradient and ford waters as deep as 700 mm.
Ukraine needs all the tools it can get. As this war is turning into a trench warfare with rapid storming assault operations, quick and light off-roaders will be needed. On top of that, the Caracal can fulfill duties of a field ambulance and a cargo vehicle, which is also very important.
Written by Povilas M.
Sources: Espreso.tv, Rheinmetall