The Iranian Defense Industries Organization (DIO) have developed and placed in production a new wheeled armoured personnel carrier (APC) called the Rakhsh. This is already in service in Iran and is now being offered on the export market.

Rakhsh has probably been developed by the DIO's Shahid Kolah Dooz Industrial Complex and is understood to be based on a proven 4 × 4 cross-country chassis. This chassis may well be produced in Iran for a variety of civil and military applications.

In addition to being used by Iran, a quantity of these vehicles have been supplied to Sudan.

Description

Hull of the Rakhsh is of all-welded steel armour that provides protection from 7.62 mm small arms fire with commander and driver seated at the front of the vehicle being provided with bullet proof windows to their front and sides.

In addition to its crew of two (commander and driver) Rakhsh can carry eight fully equipped troops who are seated in the rear troop compartment.

The occupants also have small bullet proof windows and ten associated firing ports that allow them 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.

Baseline version of the Rakhsh APC is fitted with a roof-mounted protective mount armed with a locally manufactured 12.7 mm machine gun (MG).

This mount appears to be almost identical to that installed on the locally developed Boraq full tracked APC which has been operational in Iran for several years. This manually operated mount provides side and rear protection to the gunner and is very similar to that fitted to many Chinese tracked and wheeled APCs.

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.

Optional equipment includes banks of electrically operated smoke grenade launchers, NBC system and additional ceramic armour. The latter is claimed to provide the occupants with protection from small arms fire up to 14.5 mm in calibre.