Ratel: South African Armored Vehicle!!

Ratel: South African Armored Vehicle!!

Ratel translated to English is a Honey Badger, which is a very ferocious fighter and stops for nothing. The Ratel is the main infantry fighting vehicle of the South African Defense Force, this vehicle was the first of it's kind and a number of other countries has since also manufacture similar vehicles of their own, based on this design. The Ratel has a three man crew and carries 7 infantry men. Development of the Ratel started in 1971 and production started in 1976 and was deployed for service during 1977. Over a 1000 Ratels were manufactured.

Can you spot me on the photo above? I am the one standing in the back, between the 2 guys with hats on!! This was during a military exercise called "Sweepslag" which took place at Lohatla in the Norther Cape province of South-Africa. (If you translate Sweepslag to English, it is whip-crack as in cracking a whip!!)

Image Source
The Ratel weighs 19 tons and is powered by a 315 Horse Power turbo charged diesel engine. The vehicle has permanent 6 wheel drive and has a range of a 1000 km. Top speed is 105 km/h!!

This vehicle also packs considerable fire power,

• 90 mm GT-2 Semi Automatic Canon
• 7.62 mm Machine Gun
• 7.62 MM Anti Aircraft Machine Gun
• 2 smoke grenade discharges

It also has 20 mm armor and run flat tires!! The off-road capability is comparable to that of a tank. The bottom of the vehicle is designed to deflect landmine blasts to both sides.

Below is some videos from YouTube showing the performance of the Ratels!!

If you would like to read more you can check out the Source used for this post.

I previously made a post on the South African designed G6 Howitzer Canon please follow the link if you would like to know more about this impressive motorized canon.

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it.