The Rakhsh is a lightweight

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

ian 4x4 cross-country armoured personnel carrier developed and produced by DIO's Shahid Kolah Dooz Industrial Complex and named after

Rakhsh Rakhsh (in , meaning "luminous") is a wondrous stallion -the brave and faithful steed of the preeminent hero Rostam in the Persian national epic, ''Shahnameh'' by the poet Ferdowsi. The color of Rakhsh is described as "rose leaves that have be ...

, the mythical horse of

Rostam use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , death_place = Kabulistan , death_cause = With the conspiracy of his half-brother Shaghad, he fell into a w ...

in Shahnama. It is probably based on a proven 4 × 4 cross-country chassis present in Iran before and is in service of

Iranian Police , mottotranslated = "Be steadfast witnesses for Allah in equity" ( Heraldry slogan) , formedyear = 1991 , formedmonthday = April 1 , preceding1 = Shahrbani (1913–1991)Gendarmerie (1910–1991)Committee (1979–1991) , em ...

Iranian Army The Islamic Republic of Iran Army Ground Forces ( fa, نیروی زمینی ارتش جمهوری اسلامی ایران, ''Niroo-ye Zamini-ye Artesh-e Jomhuri-ye Eslâmi-ye Iran''), acronymed NEZAJA ( fa, نزاجا, NEZEJA) are the ground forc ...

IRGC The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC; fa, سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی, Sepāh-e Pāsdārān-e Enghelāb-e Eslāmi, lit=Army of Guardians of the Islamic Revolution also Sepāh or Pasdaran for short) is a branch o ...

and Sudan.

History

It was first seen patrolling the Sudanese streets in 2005 before being unveiled by Iran officially in 2006. Rakhsh was unveiled for the export market, but also entered service in the Iranian police and military. It is believed that about 20 of them are exported to Sudan as a contract signed in 2004. Deliveries started from 2005 and ended in 2006.

Design

The hull is made of welded steel which can protect the occupants from 7.62 mm small arms. Driver's is in the frontal left part of the vehicle sided by the commander's. Both of these are protected by bulletproof glasses. In addition, 8 fully equipped troops can be carried by the rear compartment that also has small bulletproof windows and 10 associated firing ports that allows troops to fire their weapons from within the vehicle with some level of protection. The crew can rapidly enter and leave the vehicle via a door in either side of the hull and twin doors in the hull rear. It uses a DO 824LFL09 4-cylinder diesel engine with the output of 155 hp giving it a high speed of 80 km/hr on road and excellent off-road mobility. It comes in some different version. The most basic one has a 12.7 mm machine gun attached to the top of the hull with a rotatable mount similar to that of Boragh APC. Other versions are seen with

ZU-23-2 The ZU-23-2, also known as ZU-23, is a Soviet towed 23×152mm anti-aircraft twin-barreled autocannon. ZU stands for ''Zenitnaya Ustanovka'' (Russian: Зенитная Установка) – anti-aircraft mount. The GRAU index is 2A13. Developm ...

23 mm anti air cannons or a 30 mm Autocannon similar to the ones used in Russian

BMP-2 The BMP-2 (''Boyevaya Mashina Pekhoty'', , literally "combat machine/vehicle (of the) infantry") is an amphibious infantry fighting vehicle introduced in the 1980s in the Soviet Union, following on from the BMP-1 of the 1960s. Development hist ...

. Standard equipment for the Rakhsh includes a central tyre inflation system that allows the driver to adjust the tyre pressure to suit the terrain being crossed, tyres fitted with run flats, differential locks and a powered winch. As it will be deployed in high ambient temperatures an air conditioning system is fitted as standard. As the Rakhsh has good cross-country mobility, it can be used for a wide range of battlefield missions as well as a baseline APC. It could also be modified for use as an internal security vehicle. Also there are additional options for buyers such as banks of smoke grenade launchers, NBC system and additional ceramic armour. These are reported to increase the protection against 12.7 mm machine guns up to 14.5 mm.

Operators

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References

External link

{{Modern IFV and APC Armoured fighting vehicles of Iran Wheeled armoured personnel carriers Military vehicles introduced in the 2000s Armoured personnel carriers of the post–Cold War period