IDET 2023: Excalibur Army Viktor light air-defence vehicles supplied t…
Excalibur Army displayed its MR-2 Viktor light air-defence vehicle at IDET 2023. (Janes/Nicholas Fiorenza)
The Excalibur Army MR-2 Viktor light air-defence vehicle displayed at the International Defence and Security Technology Fair (IDET) 2023 held in Brno, Czech Republic, from 24 to 26 May is being supplied to Ukraine.
An Excalibur Army representative told Janes on 24 May that two batches totalling 10 to 20 vehicles had been delivered during the fourth quarter of 2022 and that 130 to 140 were planned.
Some of the vehicles have been paid for by Czech citizens, he added. EUR3.8 million (USD4.1 million) of the nearly EUR4.3 million collected from 24,270 donors have paid for 15 Viktor vehicles for Ukraine, according to the Gifts for Putin website. In addition, the Netherlands is financing 100 vehicles, according to its Ministry of Defence's website.
The vehicle, which uses a Toyota Hilux chassis, is armed with ZPU-2 twin KPVT 14.5 mm machine guns that can be used against unmanned aerial systems, the Excalibur Army representative said.
The 14.5 mm ZPU series of anti-aircraft machine guns has an effective slant range of 1,402 m, according to Janes Land Warfare Platforms: Artillery and Air Defence. The weapon's 64.4 g API (BS 41) projectile with a muzzle velocity of 1,000 m/s can penetrate 32 mm of conventional steel armour at an incidence of 0° at a range of 500 m.
