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The VBTP-MR Guarani (Portuguese Viatura Blindada Transporte de Pessoal – Média sobre Rodas; "Armored Personnel Transport Vehicle – Medium on Wheels" Guarani AFV to enter service with Brazil, Victor Barreira, Lisbon: IHS Jane's Defence Weekly, 26 February 2014.) is a 6×6 armoured personnel carrier developed by Iveco and the Brazilian Army as part of its "Urutu-III" modernization program aimed to replace all EE-11 Urutu by 2015. The 8×8 version of the VBTP-MR is the base of Iveco's Superav armoured personnel carrier. Other Brazilian companies also participated in the program, such as IMBEL (Communications), Elbit Systems (Armaments), Usiminas and (development of national ballistic structural steel).
The Brazilian Army has signed with Iveco a contract worth about €2.5 billion for supplying armoured personnel carriers of the VBTP-MR model. The vehicles will replace the old Urutu armoured vehicle employed today by the Brazilian armed forces. The contract covers the delivery of 2,044 vehicles and logistical support for a period of 20 years. Deliveries were scheduled to begin in 2012, and continue for 18 years. The total order was later scaled down to 1,580 units, under a timetable stretched to 2035. By 2023, the Army considered a further cut in the total number to around 900 units.
There is also an 8×8 variant of the vehicle.
The requirements for the VBTP-MR VBCI included an ELBIT remote control turret, equipped with a Mk44 Bushmaster II cannon and a 7.62mm machine gun; it should also be able to fire anti-tank guided missiles. This turret, capable of 360 degree swivel and elevation / depression of -15 to +60 degrees, was chosen by the Brazilian Army on a selection made from among four companies. It is expected to be manufactured in Brazil. The firing system has a laser rangefinder, vision and fire control by day/night thermal vision, double shot of command (commander and gunner of the car, with precedence for the later), automatic target tracking system, and hunter killer smoke launchers. A significant aspect of this vehicle is that the turret is equipped with weapons sights and it is stabilized in two axes, allowing firing on the move with very high probability of hit within the first shot. Future needs will determine what kind of instruments will equip the turret, possibly after the vehicle enters service.
Some speculate that the VBE / CP version will fashion a battle management system. The first level at which information must flow in a bidirectional way, what is known as "situational awareness", refers to the tactical commander. The distress (probably the VBCI) and reconnaissance models are planned to have an 8×8 drive train.
In September 2021, the Brazilian Army launched a test campaign of a new engineering variant. The unit is equipped with an excavator manipulator arm (EMA), earth anchor blade (EAB) and a straight obstacle blade (SOB) systems, supplied by the British company Pearson Engineering Ltd. In April 2023, the Brazilian Army presented the anti-air version equipped with a RBS 70 NG system.
The army commander, General Enzo Martins Peri, signed the contract for the manufacture of vehicles on 18 December 2009. The examinations would be held at Army's test range (CAEx), located in Barra de Guaratiba, west of Rio de Janeiro state. The tests would examine the vehicle durability, ergonomics and armour in situation such as landmine explosions,
Only on 7 August 2012, the Brazilian Army signed a contract to produce 86 Guarani. The order was completed by December 2012.
In March 2014, the 33rd Motorized Infantry Battalion of the 15th Mechanized Infantry Brigade will receive the first 13 vehicles. It will be the first regular army unit to be issued the new vehicle. It will be part of trials using the initial 86 vehicles to figure out doctrine for its use in service.
In 2020, The 14th Mechanized Cavalry Regiment of São Miguel do Oeste received ten VBTP-MR Guaranis equipped with the Remax tower.
In 2021 the 11th Mechanized Infantry Brigade, in Campinas-SP, was equipped with more than 126 VBTP-MR Guaranis. In July, the first units of the Brazilian Army in the northeast of the country started to receive the first Guarani vehicles, an example of the 10th Mechanized Cavalry Squadron of the 11th Infantry Brigade.
On August 4, 2021, it was the turn of the 41st Motorized Infantry Battalion, it becomes the newest military organization to be equipped with the armored personnel transport vehicle, medium on wheels (VBTP-MSR) 6X6 Guarani, with the receipt of eight units, all with SARC REMAX.
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