Bernd
12/12/2019 (Thu) 02:59:19
No.33019
del
A very unusual project was the EE-T4 Ogum. A compact, ultra lightweight and air-mobile platform, its only counterpart is the Wiesel. Its name stands out: it’s an African pagan spirit of metallurgy and war, unlike the Osório, a historical figure, and the Cascavel, Urutu, Jararaca and Sucuri, which are venomous snakes. Studies began in November 1985 to fill an Iraqi demand for a 4-ton weapons carrier.
Ultimately it had a weight of 4,4 tons, much higher than the lighter Wiesel versions, a sticking point in a platform specifically designed to be light. Length and width were also greater than the Wiesel’s, though height was comparable. Later prototypes used a 130 hp BMW MD1D24WA-LLK engine, allowing speeds of up to 75 km/h. The transmission was ZF 4HP 22. Diehl treads put little pressure on the soil. The armor was all-metal and similar to the Cascavel and Urutu’s. It could resist 7,62 mm AP fire.
Weaponry and other aspects could change depending on the Ogum’s many possible roles: four-passenger APC, command vehicle, ambulance, recon, anti-tank and so on. For that it could mount one 7,62 mm machine gun or two of them in a turret, a 20 mm gun, an ATGM, a .50 cal machine gun in a rotating turret or a 120 mm mortar.
In Abu Dhabi on 1988, as the last Osório competition was being held, the Ogum and Wiesel were both tested and apparently the former performed better.
Engesa displayed the Ogum to foreign delegations in Brazil and in 1989 it was even shown to the world at the First International Military Products exposition in Baghdad. But as it filled a tiny niche it failed to find a buyer -even the Iraqis were not that interested in it.
Four prototypes were built. The last and most advanced, which was previously in the Exposition, was in Tikrit upon the outbreak of the Gulf War and has not been heard from since. The second is kept by the Second Tank Regiment and the other two are presumably scrapped.