The Grizzly APC is a 22-ton

infantry mobility vehicle An infantry mobility vehicle (IMV) is a wheeled armored personnel carrier (APC) serving as a military patrol, reconnaissance or security vehicle. Examples include the ATF Dingo, Iveco LMV, Oshkosh M-ATV, AMZ Dzik, AMZ Tur, Mungo ESK, and Bushma ...

designed and manufactured by

Academi Blackwater was an American private military company founded on December 26, 1996 by former Navy SEAL officer Erik Prince. It was renamed Xe Services in 2009 and known as Academi since 2011 after it was acquired by a group of private investors. ...

for

urban combat Urban warfare is combat conducted in urban areas such as towns and cities. Urban combat differs from combat in the open at both the operational and the tactical levels. Complicating factors in urban warfare include the presence of civilians and t ...

Design

4x2, 4x4, and 6x6 versions with three different Caterpillar diesel engines are available. Its armor, called the "Blackwater High Threat Armor Protection System" is claimed to defeat 12.7 mm

.50 caliber This is a list of firearm cartridges which have bullets in the to caliber range. *''Length'' refers to the cartridge case Case or CASE may refer to: Containers * Case (goods), a package of related merchandise * Cartridge case or casing, a ...

rounds as well as IEDs. It is constructed of AR500 steel, and incorporates angled walls and a

v-hull The V-hull is a type of vehicle armor design used on wheeled armored personnel carriers (APCs), infantry mobility vehicles, infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) and MRAPs. The design originated in the 1970s with vehicles such as the iconic Casspir ...

chassis A chassis (, ; plural ''chassis'' from French châssis ) is the load-bearing framework of an artificial object, which structurally supports the object in its construction and function. An example of a chassis is a vehicle frame, the underpart ...

to deflect the blast waves produced by explosives. It uses Fiber-Tek armor reinforced belly and lowers, with a fully enclosed

drive train A drivetrain (also frequently spelled as drive train or sometimes drive-train) is the group of components that deliver mechanical power from the prime mover to the driven components. In automotive engineering, the drivetrain is the components o ...

. ArmorThane tactical coating on the interior and exterior reduces

spall Spall are fragments of a material that are broken off a larger solid body. It can be produced by a variety of mechanisms, including as a result of projectile impact, corrosion, weathering, cavitation, or excessive rolling pressure (as in a ball ...

probability. There are two top-side egress hatches, five gun ports (two on each side and one in rear), and transparent armored windows, capable of NIJ level 3 protection. The Grizzly makes use of forward and rear 400,000+

candle power Candlepower (abbreviated as cp or CP) is a unit of measurement for luminous intensity. It expresses levels of light intensity relative to the light emitted by a candle of specific size and constituents. The historical candlepower is equal to 0.981 ...

halogen The halogens () are a group in the periodic table consisting of five or six chemically related elements: fluorine (F), chlorine (Cl), bromine (Br), iodine (I), astatine (At), and tennessine (Ts). In the modern IUPAC nomenclature, this group is ...

searchlights A searchlight (or spotlight) is an apparatus that combines an extremely bright source (traditionally a carbon arc lamp) with a mirrored parabolic reflector to project a powerful beam of light of approximately parallel rays in a particular dire ...

, which can be operated remotely. It also has a ringmount roof turret, capable of mounting a

12.7mm This is a list of firearm cartridge (weaponry), cartridges which have bullets in the to caliber range. *''Length'' refers to the cartridge casing (ammunition), case length. *''OAL'' refers to the overall length of the cartridge. *''Bullet'' ref ...

machine gun, which may be operated from a

remote weapon station A remote controlled weapon station (RCWS), or remote weapon station (RWS), also known as a remote weapon system (RWS), is a remotely operated weaponized system often equipped with fire-control system for light and medium- caliber weapons which c ...

. Blackwater USA submitted two Grizzly APC vehicles to the U.S. military, with EXO Scale anti- EFP

appliqué armor Military vehicles are commonly armoured (or armored; see spelling differences) to withstand the impact of shrapnel, bullets, shells, rockets, and missiles, protecting the personnel inside from enemy fire. Such vehicles include armoured fighting ...

from ARES Systems Group, for the MRAP II competition at the

Aberdeen Proving Ground Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) (sometimes erroneously called Aberdeen Proving ''Grounds'') is a U.S. Army facility located adjacent to Aberdeen, Harford County, Maryland, United States. More than 7,500 civilians and 5,000 military personnel work at ...

. According to the

Army Times ''Army Times'' (International Standard Serial Number, ISSN 0004–2595) is a newspaper published 26 times a year serving active, reserve, national guard and retired United States Army personnel and their families, providing news, information ...

, the armor passed the testing, but the vehicle failed due to limited armor on the forward area of the vehicle (pictures on ARES' website shows less armor was used over the frontal area of the cab.) Blackwater had been hoping to discuss adding more armor to the forward area and threatened an automatic protest but it was disregarded, according to an

source.

Production

The Grizzly is manufactured by Blackwater Armored Vehicle, a division of Academi (formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide and Xe Services LLC), in a

factory A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. T ...

in Camden, North Carolina. It was scheduled to begin production in April 2007 and Blackwater predicted production of at least a vehicle a day to meet demand. However, the Grizzly was not selected by the US Army in 2008 and lack of projected non-US-military sales have forced cutbacks in staff at the plant. The first Grizzly was built on a commercial

GMC (automobile) GMC (formerly the General Motors Truck Company (1911–1943), or the GMC Truck & Coach Division (1943–1998)) is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM) that primarily focuses on trucks and utility vehicles. GMC cu ...

chassis. The current versions are built on a custom chassis supplied by

Seagrave Fire Apparatus Seagrave Fire Apparatus LLC is an American fire apparatus manufacturer that specializes in pumper and rescue units, as well as aerial towers. In addition to manufacturing new equipment, they refurbish, repair and upgrade older Seagrave apparatu ...

, Clintonville, Wisconsin.

References

External links

Blackwater Grizzly
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170316111245/http://www.defense-update.com/products/g/grizzly_bw.htm , date=2017-03-16 at Defense Update

Military vehicles introduced in the 2000s Armored personnel carriers of the United States Post–Cold War armored fighting vehicles of the United States Blackwater (company)

Design

Production

See also

References

External links