To meet the demand for heavily protected utility and multipurpose vehicles able to provide high levels of ballistic, mine and IED protection, IVECO Defence Vehicles worked jointly with KMW to develop a new family of vehicles known as MPV (Multi purpose Vehicles) which fits between its highly successful Light Multirole Vehicle (LMV) and its Centauro AIFV 8 Ч 8 armoured wheeled vehicles.

Not only the MPV is among the most protected vehicles in its category, but it also has one of the best volume/protection ratio. In current operations mobility does not mean only the ability to move on difficult terrain, but also to be able to drive through narrow roads and urban areas. MPV has been designed with this requirement in mind, optimising terrain accessibility whilst ensuring that life cycle costs are reduced through the maximum use of COTS assemblies.

The new family of vehicles known as MPV (Medium Protected Vehicle) fits between the highly successful Light Multirole Vehicle (LMV) and the Centauro/Freccia 8x8 armoured wheeled vehicles. MPV is based on an off-the shelf high mobility chassis which is widely used in the Trakker product line. The variant displayed at Eurosatory 2010 is the VTMM, the Italian army configuration. This not only provides outstanding mobility but also allows the customer to exploit Iveco’s worldwide logistic support system. This ensures spare parts availability and allows automotive support to be on hand worldwide, contributing to the reduction of life-cycle costs. Fully developed in Europe, the MPV design exploits the technical expertise of two of the major European companies involved in armoured vehicles production, Iveco DV and Krauss- Maffei Wegmann (KMW) of Germany. An agreement was signed between the two companies in June 2008, enabling each company to respond to specific national capability requirements. Thus, KMW are taking the lead on the German requirement for a 6x6 vehicle with a 25 t combat weight while Iveco DV are leading the development of a 4x4 platform in the 18 t class to meet an Italian requirement. Both 4 x 4 and 6 x 6 versions of MPV have already undergone very extensive trials and have proved to be an excellent match for the particular demands of the users.Iveco Defence Vehicles announces that on December 20th, 2010 the Italian Army placed order for a batch of 12 MPV in the Ambulance version (named VTMM Ambulance by the Italian Army) to be delivered between 2011 and 2012.

The MPV-VTMM platform, due to this flexibility, can be declined in several other versions, while maintaining the level of protection of basic configuration. Some of the possibilities already under study and development are:

• Advanced Combat Recce Team (ACRT)

• Explosive Ordnance Devices Disposal (EODD)

• Electronic Warfare (EW-RCIED)

• Command Post (CP)

• Communications

• Logistic

The Iveco MPV roof structure is can be accept a variety of weapons depending on customer requirements, including 7,62mm or 12,7mm machine gun and 40mm grenade launcher.

The crew compartment is based on the “citadel” concept, providing a high level of survivability to the occupants against ballistic and mine threats. Besides its class leading levels of protection, MPV also possesses one of the best volume. The base steep armour of the crew cell, produced by KMW, provides a high level of ballistic protection. This can be further enhanced to meet the predicted threat trough the use of appliqué protection developed by IBD. The base steel armour of the crew cell provides a high level of ballistic protection and this can be further enhanced through the use of appliqué protection to meet the predicted threat. Protection against mine and IED attack up to STANAG 4569 Level 3 is provided both through the dewsing of the hull, with its large stand-off, under body deflector plates and blast energy management system, and through a series of design features.

The MPV uses a 4x4 chassis. The MPV-VTMM 4x4 is equipped with the Cursor 8 engines coupled with semiautomatic gearbox and differential-locking system, permanent all-wheel drive with automatic tyre-pressure regulation and run-flat tyres. The MPV family can effortlessly take on slopes of up to 60% and ride along side slopes up to 30% – at a range of more than 700 km, or 430 miles, without refueling.

Large tyres fitted with run-flat inserts optimise absorption of blast energy, whilst deflector plates lining the whell arches maximise energy dissipation. All occupants are provided with specially designed shock dampened seats which are suspended on elastic mounts, avoiding direct transmission of blast shock to the crew.