The Romanian MLI-84 Infantry Fighting Vehicle
Romania was another country to licence build the Russian BMP-1. A total of 184 were built by ROMARM SA in Burcharest from 1983 onwards.
The Romanian MLI-84 Infantry Fighting Vehicle retained the normal BMP-1 turret with its 73mm main gun (un-stabilized) and coaxial 7.62mm MG (turret traverses 360, main gun elevates -4 to +30 degree’s). Like the BMP-1, the vehicle could store 40 x 73mm, 2000 x 7.62mm rounds. It also was equipped with a Sager wire guided Anti-Tank Missile launch on top of the 73mm main gun.
Unlike the BMP-1, the vehicle was equipped with an additional 12.7mm MG mounted at the rear of the vehicle on the left. It was operated if required, by one of the boarded 8 troops through a roof hatch. 500 rounds were carried.
The vehicle had an extended hull and as such, a 8V-1240-DT-S diesel engine, which was developed in Romania. It generated a higher hp (360) compared to the Russian BMP-1. It had a top road speed of 65km/h and range of 600km.
Vehicle is fully amphibious and propelled in the water by its tracks with a top speed of 7km/h.
Turret is manned by the gunner, driver sits front left, with the commander behind him and the engine to their right. Rear accommodates 8 equipped troops sitting on benches back to back. They can fire the personal arms through firing ports in the side of the vehicle.
Armour protection is standard steel, which is rated for protection up to 14.5mm. It uses smoke grenade launchers and an NBC protection system and night vision sighting equipment.
The Romanian MLI-84M Infantry Fighting Vehicle
In recent years Romania has been upgrading The Romanian MLI-84 IFV to the The Romanian MLI-84M IFV new standard with non Romanian parts.
The most striking is the new turret. The OWS-25R (Overhead Weapon Station) turret is from the Israeli firm RAFAEL. The main gun is a KBA 25mm auto cannon, supplied by the famous Swiss firm Oerlikon. It is equipped with a 7.62mm Machine Gun in an armoured box on the right and two 9S415 ATGM launchers on the left, which are used to fire AT-3 Sagger wire guided ATM.
The new turret has increased the vehicles overall weight, so a new engine was added, which then meant the overall size of the hull had to be increased. This has had a detrimental effect on the vehicles amphibious capabilities and requires a higher level of preparation before entering the water.
The engine is a diesel Perkins CV8T-400, which generates 400hp. Its received new drives and upgraded suspension.
A new superstructure was also added in place of the RAFAEL turret, which serves as a command or ambulance vehicles. A new ARV was developed, where the RAFAEL turret was replaced with a hymac arm crane.
Its understood there that 99 MLI-84’s of the original 184 have been brought up to the MLI-84M standard. A late upgrade of the standard, will be the replacement of the launchers used to fire the Russian Sagger wire guided ATM’s, to those that can fire the Israeli 4th generation, fire and forget (vehicle does not need to remain stationary whilst firing & guiding, so isn’t a target), tandem charge (two charges) warhead, capable of defeating ERA, Spike ATM.