The EE-9 ''Cascavel'' (, translated to ''Rattlesnake'') is a six-wheeled

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

ian armoured car developed primarily for reconnaissance. It was engineered by

Engesa Engesa – Engenheiros Especializados S/A was a Brazilian company in the agriculture and defense sectors that specialized in producing tactical military trucks, armored fighting vehicles, and civilian Sport utility vehicles. Engesa began as a ...

in 1970 as a replacement for Brazil's ageing fleet of

M8 Greyhound The M8 light armored car is a 6×6 armored car produced by the Ford Motor Company during World War II. It was used from 1943 by United States and British forces in Europe and the Pacific until the end of the war. The vehicle was widely exporte ...

s. The vehicle was first fitted with the Greyhound's 37mm main gun, and subsequently, a French turret adopted from the

Panhard AML-90 The Panhard AML (''Auto Mitrailleuse Légère'', or "Light Machine Gun Car") is an armoured car with reconnaissance capability. Designed on a lightly armoured 4×4 chassis, it weighs an estimated 5.5 tonnes, and is thus suitable for airborne depl ...

. Later models carry unique Engesa turrets with a Belgian 90mm Cockerill Mk.3 cannon produced under licence as the ''EC-90''. The Cascavel shares many components with the

EE-11 Urutu The EE-11 Urutu is a Brazilian amphibious armored personnel carrier. It was based on the drive train and chassis components of the EE-9 Cascavel armored car and initially emerged as part of a project to develop an amphibious troop-carrying counter ...

, its

armoured personnel carrier An armoured personnel carrier (APC) is a broad type of armoured military vehicle designed to transport personnel and equipment in combat zones. Since World War I, APCs have become a very common piece of military equipment around the world. Acc ...

counterpart; both entered production in 1974 and are now operated by over 20 nations in South America, Africa, and the Middle East. Rights to the design were also sold to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

via the

FMC Corporation FMC Corporation is an American chemical manufacturing company headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which originated as an insecticide producer in 1883 and later diversified into other industries. In 1941 at the beginning of US involvemen ...

. About 2,767 Cascavels and Urutus were manufactured before Engesa ceased operations in 1993.

History

Development

Throughout the early 1960s, Brazil's bilateral defence agreements with the United States ensured easy access to a post-war surplus of American military equipment, including a number of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

-vintage

armoured cars. The Brazilian arms industry limited itself to restoring and maintaining this obsolete hardware until 1964 when American involvement in the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

placed restrictions on the amount of defence technology available for export. Brazil responded by creating an indigenous import substitution programme in 1968 aimed at reproducing US equipment already in service. Already in 1966 an article in the military periodical ''A Defesa Nacional'' had argued that the state of national

automotive industry The automotive industry comprises a wide range of company, companies and organizations involved in the design, Business development, development, manufacturing, marketing, and selling of motor vehicles. It is one of the world's largest industry ...

highways A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-access ...

and

Petrobras Petróleo Brasileiro S.A., better known by the portmanteau Petrobras (), is a state owned enterprise, state-owned Brazilian multinational corporation in the petroleum industry headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The company's name transla ...

fuel production made it viable to locally produce an 8–10 ton, 6x6 armoured vehicle, and by 1970 the Brazilian Army was developing an updated Greyhound known simply by its Portuguese initials, CRR (''Carro de Reconhecimento sobre Rodas''). Engesa, then an obscure civilian engineering firm, took over the project and by November 1970 a prototype was completed. The new EE-9 Cascavel entered the pre-production phase between 1972 and 1973. Assembly lines for the Cascavel and its armoured personnel carrier counterpart, the

, were opened in 1974. The hulls were purchased by the Brazilian Army but mounted the same antiquated 37mm cannon and turret recycled from its elderly Greyhounds. To compete with more formidable armament available on the international market, Engesa also marketed a heavily modified Cascavel with an automatic transmission and the same 90mm (3.54 in) low-pressure gun found on the

Panhard AML The Panhard AML (''Auto Mitrailleuse Légère'', or "Light Machine Gun Car") is an armoured car with reconnaissance capability. Designed on a lightly armoured 4×4 chassis, it weighs an estimated 5.5 tonnes, and is thus suitable for airborne dep ...

. This model, intended for export, drew interest in the Middle East and twenty were immediately purchased by Qatar. The Qatari Cascavel sale proved to be a major success for Engesa, and Brazil's first successful inroad into the Arabian arms trade.

Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi (, ; ar, أَبُو ظَبْيٍ ' ) is the capital and second-most populous city (after Dubai) of the United Arab Emirates. It is also the capital of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and the centre of the Abu Dhabi Metropolitan Area. ...

followed suit with an order for two hundred Cascavels in 1977. Both Iraq and Libya chose the Cascavel in preference to the Panhard AML-90 or ERC-90 Sagaie, with the former negotiating a $400 million deal for the delivery of two hundred Cascavels and two hundred Urutus. Following the Libyan sale, Engesa unveiled a new production model carrying a Belgian designed, Cockerill main gun manufactured under licence as the ''EC-90'' in Brazil.

Service

The

Armed Forces of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya The Armed Forces of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya consisted of the Libyan Army, Libyan Air Force and the Libyan Navy and other services including the People's Militia. In November 2010, before the First Civil War of 2011, the total number of Libya ...

successfully deployed a number of EE-9 Cascavels against Egyptian tanks, likely

T-54/55 The T-54 and T-55 tanks are a series of Soviet main battle tanks introduced in the years following the Second World War. The first T-54 prototype was completed at Nizhny Tagil by the end of 1945.Steven Zaloga, T-54 and T-55 Main Battle Tanks ...

s or

T-62 The T-62 is a Soviet Union, Soviet main battle tank that was first introduced in 1961. As a further development of the T-54/T-55, T-55 series, the T-62 retained many similar design elements of its predecessor including low profile and thick ...

s, during the Libyan–Egyptian War in 1977. Libyan Cascavels also saw action in

Chad Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...

, where they engaged AML-90s of the

French Foreign Legion The French Foreign Legion (french: Légion étrangère) is a corps of the French Army which comprises several specialties: infantry, Armoured Cavalry Arm, cavalry, Military engineering, engineers, Airborne forces, airborne troops. It was created ...

and French Marines. An unknown number of these armoured cars were later donated to the

Polisario Front The Polisario Front, Frente Polisario, Frelisario or simply Polisario, from the Spanish abbreviation of (Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Río de Oro), (in ar, rtl=yes, الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير الس� ...

and

Togo Togo (), officially the Togolese Republic (french: République togolaise), is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, where its c ...

, while others remained in service as late as the

2011 Libyan Civil War The First Libyan Civil War was an armed conflict in 2011 in the North African country of Libya that was fought between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and rebel groups that were seeking to oust his government. It erupted with the Liby ...

. Cascavels were still in use during the 2016 battle of Sirte against the

Islamic State An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...

. Chad's

Transitional Government of National Unity The Transitional Government of National Unity (''Gouvernement d'Union Nationale de Transition'' or GUNT) was the coalition government of armed groups that nominally ruled Chad from 1979 to 1982, during the most chaotic phase of the long-running ci ...

(GUNT) received five EE-9 Cascavels from Libya in 1986. Over the course of the Chadian–Libyan conflict, seventy-nine ex-Libyan Cascavels were captured or recovered from the

Aouzou Strip The Aouzou Strip (; ar, قطاع أوزو, Qiṭāʿ Awzū, french: Bande d'Aozou) is a strip of land in northern Chad that lies along the border with Libya, extending south to a depth of about 100 kilometers into Chad's Borkou, Ennedi Ouest, E ...

by the Chadian military, which continues to hold them in storage. The

National Army of Colombia The National Army of Colombia ( es, Ejército Nacional de Colombia) is the land warfare service branch of the Military Forces of Colombia. With over 361,420 active personnel as of 2020, it is the largest and oldest service branch in Colombia, an ...

acquired 128 new EE-9 Cascavels in 1982, in order to modernize its equipment in case of an armed conflict with Venezuela. The armoured cars saw their first and most meaningful action during the

Palace of Justice siege The Palace of Justice siege was a 1985 attack on the Supreme Court of Colombia, in which members of the leftist M-19 guerrilla group took over the Palace of Justice in Bogotá and held the Supreme Court hostage, intending to hold a trial agains ...

in 1985, when members of the M-19 guerrilla group took over the Palace of Justice in

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...

. The EE-9s made some direct hits against the structure's external walls, which started a fire that destroyed the building and killed several hostages. During the

Iran–Iraq War The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. It began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for almost eight years, until the acceptance of United Nations Security Council ...

, EE-9 Cascavels were operated by Iraqi garrisons near the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Persis, Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a Mediterranean sea (oceanography), me ...

. The armoured cars were frequently able to outmanoeuvre the heavier Iranian tanks and tracked combat vehicles on the relatively flat, sandy terrain near the coastal region. Coalition air strikes later destroyed several north of

Kuwait City Kuwait City ( ar, مدينة الكويت) is the capital and largest city of Kuwait. Located at the heart of the country on the south shore of Kuwait Bay on the Persian Gulf, it is the political, cultural and economical centre of the emirate, ...

Operation Desert Storm Operation or Operations may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity * Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory * ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Man ...

. Following the

2003 invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...

, the surviving fleet was condemned for scrap; however, American technical personnel did restore thirty-five to working order in 2008 and present them to the

New Iraqi Army The Iraqi Ground Forces (Arabic: القوات البرية العراقية), or the Iraqi Army (Arabic: الجيش العراقي), is the ground force component of the Iraqi Armed Forces. It was known as the Royal Iraqi Army up until the coup ...

. Locally modified EE-9 were refurbished by Iraqi militias of the

Popular Mobilization Forces The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) ( ar, الحشد الشعبي ''al-Ḥashd ash-Shaʿbī''), also known as the People's Mobilization Committee (PMC) and the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), is an Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, transli ...

, with some having their 90mm replaced or supplemented by

DShK The DShK 1938 ( Cyrillic: ДШК, for russian: Дегтярёва-Шпагина Крупнокалиберный, Degtyaryova-Shpagina Krupnokaliberny, links=no, "Degtyaryov-Shpagin large-calibre") is a Soviet heavy machine gun with a V-shaped bu ...

ZPU The ZPU (, meaning "anti-aircraft machine gun mount") is a family of towed anti-aircraft gun based on the Soviet 14.5×114mm KPV heavy machine gun. It entered service with the Soviet Union in 1949 and is used by over 50 countries worldwide. ...

machine guns, 107mm Type 63 rockets or a 2A28 Grom gun. They were used against Islamic State forces. Zimbabwe procured ninety EE-9 Cascavels in 1984 as a suitable replacement for the

Eland Mk7 The Eland is an air portable light armoured car based on the Panhard AML. Designed and built for long-range reconnaissance, it mounts either a 60mm (2.4 in) breech-loading mortar or a Denel 90mm (3.5 in) gun on a very compact chass ...

. At least one Zimbabwean Cascavel squadron deployed into

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

during the

Mozambican Civil War The Mozambican Civil War ( pt, Guerra Civil Moçambicana) was a civil war fought in Mozambique from 1977 to 1992. Like many regional African conflicts during the late twentieth century, the Mozambican Civil War possessed local dynamics but was a ...

to protect Harare's primary commercial links in

Tete Province Tete is a Provinces of Mozambique, province of Mozambique. It has an area of 98,417 km² and a population of 2,648,941 (2017 census). Tete is the capital of the province. The Cahora Bassa Dam is situated in this province. Districts On ...

. The armoured cars provided armed escort for local convoys and patrolled the roads to preempt attacks by

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

n-backed

Mozambican National Resistance RENAMO (from the Portuguese , ) is a Mozambican political party and militant group. The party was founded with the active sponsorship of the Rhodesian Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) in May 1977 from anti-communist dissidents opposed ...

(RENAMO) insurgents. During Zimbabwe's intervention in the

Second Congo War The Second Congo War,, group=lower-alpha also known as the Great War of Africa or the Great African War and sometimes referred to as the African World War, began in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in August 1998, little more than a year a ...

Ilyushin Il-76 The Ilyushin Il-76 (russian: Илью́шин Ил-76; NATO reporting name: Candid) is a multi-purpose, fixed-wing, four-engine turbofan strategic airlifter designed by the Soviet Union's Ilyushin design bureau. It was first planned as a comm ...

s commandeered from local charter firms were used to airlift twelve Cascavels to

N'djili Airport N'djili Airport (french: Aéroport de N'djili ), also known as N'Djili International Airport and Kinshasa International Airport, serves the city of Kinshasa and is the largest of the four international airports in the Democratic Republic of th ...

. From there they subsequently engaged Rwandan troops advancing on

Kinshasha Kinshasa (; ; ln, Kinsásá), formerly Léopoldville ( nl, Leopoldstad), is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Once a site of fishing and trading villages situated along the Congo River, Kinshasa is now one o ...

. Some were abandoned by Zimbabwean troops in the Congo after being sabotaged beyond repair, while four others were captured by rebel factions. Few remain in present service due to lack of funds to source new parts from Brazil. The EE-9 Cascavel has found favour with many armies due to its simplified design and use of components already ubiquitous to civilian industry. Its low cost next to comparable Western armoured cars makes it an attractive purchase to developing nations in particular. At the height of the Cold War, the strictly commercial nature of Engesa sales—devoid of any political supplier restraints—was also perceived as an acceptable alternative to arms from

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

and the

Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republic ...

Description

All EE-9 Cascavels have a similar layout—the driver is seated at the front of the vehicle and to the left, turrets are typically fitted above the centre, with motor and transmission situated at the rear. The Cascavel Mk II has a manual turret, but all later variants have electrically powered traverse. Cascavel Mk IIIs are equipped with an Engesa EC-90 90mm gun firing

high explosive An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An exp ...

(HE),

high explosive anti-tank High-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) is the effect of a shaped charge explosive that uses the Munroe effect to penetrate heavy armor. The warhead functions by having an explosive charge collapse a metal liner inside the warhead into a high-velocity ...

(HEAT) or

high explosive squash head High explosive squash head (HESH) in British terminology, or high explosive plastic/plasticized (HEP) in American terminology, is a type of explosive projectile which uses a plastic explosive that conforms to the surface of a target before detonat ...

(HESH) shells in cartridge form; a coaxial 7.62mm machine gun is also mounted to the left of the main armament. The EC-90 has an elevation of +15° and a depression of -8°. It is not stabilised and only mounts a rudimentary optical

fire-control system A fire-control system (FCS) is a number of components working together, usually a gun data computer, a director, and radar, which is designed to assist a ranged weapon system to target, track, and hit a target. It performs the same task as a ...

, which has been upgraded with a laser

rangefinder A rangefinder (also rangefinding telemeter, depending on the context) is a device used to measure distances to remote objects. Originally optical devices used in surveying, they soon found applications in other fields, such as photography an ...

in Brazilian service. Late production Cascavels were fitted with run-flat tyres and a unique central tyre pressure regulator accessible from the driving compartment.

External

A boxy, boat-shaped vehicle, the EE-9 Cascavel has a steep frontal glacis which slopes upwards and back towards the horizontal hull roof, with recesses for the headlamps and a thick glacis plate over the driver's seat. The hull sides are nearly vertical, but also sloped inwards towards the roof. There is a low, well-rounded turret on the forward section of the hull with a long, tapered gun barrel and a triple baffle muzzle brake.

Variants

* Cascavel Mk I: Popularly nicknamed ''Cascavel Magro'' (skinny rattlesnake) for its small turret ring, this was Engesa's initial production model and only entered service with the Brazilian Army. It was equipped with a turret adopted from the

and a manual transmission. Its prevailing feature were two sets of rear road wheels linked by an articulated, boomerang-shaped suspension which boosted rear wheel drive—a characteristic that became nearly synonymous with the Cascavel and Urutu. * Cascavel Mk II: Popularly nicknamed ''Cascavel Gordo'' (fat rattlesnake) for its wide turret ring, this was Engesa's first export model and entered service with

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

, the

Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (; SADR; also romanized with Saharawi; ar, الجمهورية العربية الصحراوية الديمقراطية ' es, República Árabe Saharaui Democrática), also known as Western Sahara, is a ...

, and

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...

. It was equipped with an H-90 turret adopted from the

and an automatic transmission. * Cascavel Mk III: An improved EE-9 Cascavel Mk II refitted with a diesel engine and an Engesa turret carrying the new Brazilian-manufactured 90mm EC-90 main gun. An anti-aircraft prototype carrying twin 25mm autocannon was also trialled but not adopted. Most Cascavel Mk Is were upgraded to this standard, including automatic transmissions, for the Brazilian Army. * Cascavel Mk IV: First production model to be equipped with run-flat tyres and the tyre pressure regulator. Also carried a more integrated fire control system. * Cascavel Mk V: An EE-9 Cascavel Mk IV fitted with a Mercedes-Benz OM52A diesel engine developing 190 hp (142 kW). This was the final variant offered for sale by Engesa. * Cascavel Mk VI: Derivative of the EE-9 Cascavel Mk V with a Mercedes-Benz OM352A diesel engine. * Cascavel Mk VII: EE-9 Cascavel Mk V with the MT-643 gearbox of the Mk IV. * Novo Cascavel: A modernized variant of the EE-9 Cascavel by AKAER Engenharia ordered by the Brazilian Army in July 2022 with a new engine, tower with automated control, air conditioning, replacement of the optronics, anti-tank missile launcher in its main turret, a new shooting computer as well new sensors. 98 units ordered as a first batch.

Operators

Current operators

* : 24 * : 600 (409 operational in 2010) 98 being modernized to the "Novo Cascavel" standard, remaining in proccess of replacment by the Centauro II 8×8. * : 24 * : 20 * : 121 * : 126 * : 19 * : 22 to 28 * : 14 * : 3 * : 18 * : 130 to 150; 35 operational . * : 232 to 364; 35 operational . * : 380 to 500; 70 operational . * : 7 * : 150 * : 75 * : 28 to 30 * : 20 * : 29 * : 6 to 7 * : 24 * : 15 * : 9 * : 90; 10 operational and 77 reserve .

Former operators

* : 83 * : 36, from Libya

Notes and citations

;Citations ;Online sources * * * * * * * * ;Newspaper and journal articles * * * * * * * * * * * * ;Bibliography * * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ee-9 Cascavel Armoured cars of the Cold War Armoured fighting vehicles of Brazil Fire support vehicles Wheeled reconnaissance vehicles Military vehicles introduced in the 1970s Vehicles introduced in 1970 Reconnaissance vehicles of the Cold War Six-wheeled vehicles