Brazil orders first production batch of Centauro II BR tank destroyers from Italy.

On August 31, 2026, the Brazilian Army signed a contract valued at approximately R$420 million with the CIO consortium for a seven-vehicle production batch of Centauro II BR 8×8 tank destroyers, establishing the Lote de Experimentação Doutrinária. The procurement expands Brazil's contracted fleet to nine units, providing a unit-sized formation to evaluate tactical employment, crew procedures, and maintenance protocols. This acquisition replaces the aging EE-9 Cascavel fleet, delivering enhanced 120 mm direct-fire engagement capabilities and modern digital fire control to mechanized cavalry units without sacrificing strategic road mobility.

The dual-contract agreement secures seven serial Centauro II BR vehicles with deliveries set for completion by October 31, 2028, alongside an integrated package for tooling, spare parts, and training. Designed to equip 14 mechanized cavalry squadrons with a reduced objective of 98 total platforms, the program relies on annual lot funding and targets 70% local assembly starting from the fifth batch at IDV's Sete Lagoas facility.

Related topic: Brazilian Army completes firing tests for its new Italian-made Centauro II BR 8x8 tank destroyers

The fifth-lot threshold is critical: if procurement stops before then, Brazil could retain a small Centauro fleet without reaching the planned domestic assembly phase; if all 98 are acquired, more than seven of every ten vehicles could be assembled at Sete Lagoas. (Picture source: Brazilian MoD)

On August 31, 2026, the Brazilian Army signed the contract for the first production batch of seven Centauro II BR (VBC Cav-MSR) 8×8 tank destroyers, increasing the contracted fleet to nine. The seven vehicles form the Lote de Experimentação Doutrinária (LED) and will join prototypes that arrived in Brazil on August 17 and September 2, 2024. CIO, the IDV-Oto Melara consortium, has 26 months to complete delivery, setting October 31, 2028, as the contractual deadline, with the first vehicles expected in early 2028 and payment linked to individual deliveries. A parallel agreement covers tooling, spare parts, training and first- and second-echelon maintenance support; together, the two contracts are valued at about R$420 million. The current program calls for 98 Centauro IIs, including the prototypes, acquired through annual lots to equip 14 mechanized-cavalry squadrons.

The original requirement was 221 vehicles, meaning the funded program structure has been reduced by 123, or 55.7%, while the first nine contracted vehicles represent only 9.2% of the current 98-vehicle objective. The selection resulted from a 2021 competition involving 55 companies and 28 vehicle models, narrowed to six formal proposals and then three finalists on October 7, 2022: CIO's Centauro II, General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada's LAV 700 AG and NORINCO's ST1/T1-BR. The Centauro II was also the only finalist offered with a 120 mm main gun, while the LAV 700 AG and ST1-BR were configured with 105 mm weapons. Brazil selected the Centauro II on November 25, 2022, and signed the two-prototype contract on December 15. The vehicles subsequently passed five evaluation phases in Italy and Brazil covering more than 600 attributes before approval at the end of 2024.

Brazilian live-fire qualification at Campo de Instrução de Saicã included 120 mm APFSDS and HEAT ammunition fired against a decommissioned EE-11 Urutu 6×6, followed by tactical employment during Operação Punhos de Aço 2025 at Santa Maria. The seven-vehicle LED expands experimentation from two isolated qualification vehicles to a unit-sized fleet for testing organization, crew procedures, maintenance, and tactical employment, but COLOG has indicated that subsequent lots can be contracted while this experimentation continues rather than waiting for it to finish. For the Centauro II BR, the Brazilian Army specifies an engagement at up to 5 km, while Lt. Col. Ricardo Santos de Queiroz Júnior of the 18th Mechanized Cavalry Regiment has compared a roughly 2 km useful engagement distance for the existing EE-9 Cascavel with as much as 4 km for the Centauro II.

The standard 120 mm configuration carries 31 rounds, and Brazilian testing has included both APFSDS kinetic-energy and HEAT shaped-charge ammunition. The Brazilian prototypes use a four-person crew and a manually loaded 120 mm cannon, an important distinction from other Centauro II configurations with automatic loading. Secondary armament comprises one coaxial FN MAG58 7.62×51 mm machine gun, another MAG58 on an external pintle, and eight 76 mm smoke-grenade launchers; later vehicles could receive the Brazilian REMAX 4 remotely controlled station with a 7.62 mm or 12.7 mm weapon. The commander and gunner use day and thermal electro-optics, laser ranging, stabilization and digital fire control, allowing target detection, ranging and engagement while moving. At close to 30 tonnes, the Centauro II BR combines the 120 mm weapon with a 525 kW, roughly 720 hp Iveco Vector V8, producing about 24 hp/t.

The engine is coupled to a 7HP902 automatic transmission with seven forward gears and one reverse, an H-drive 8×8 drivetrain, independent hydropneumatic suspension, and a central tire-inflation system. Maximum road speed exceeds 105 km/h, and road range is about 800 km, giving the vehicle a mobility profile suited to moving cavalry units between widely separated sectors without relying systematically on heavy transporters. Protection consists of a high-hardness monocoque steel hull with modular add-on armor, mine and IED protection, anti-RC-IED equipment, NBC/CBRN protection, and separated ammunition storage. Brazil is therefore replacing the EE-9 Cascavel with a substantially heavier and better protected direct-fire vehicle while retaining the road speed and range required by mechanized cavalry rather than converting these units to tracked tanks.

The Brazilian configuration also introduces a digital communications and engagement architecture absent from the original Cascavel design. The prototypes combine stabilized day/thermal sights, laser rangefinders and digital fire control with an L3Harris Falcon III VHF radio, Thales SOTAS M3 intercom and SGB battle management system. These systems connect target observation, ranging, ballistic calculation, firing, and tactical information exchange rather than treating them as separate optical and voice-radio functions. Reserve 120 mm ammunition is separated from occupied crew spaces, while NBC protection and anti-RC-IED equipment address threats not central to the Cascavel's 1970s design. Later Brazilian vehicles may diverge from the prototypes through REMAX 4, locally developed multiband software-defined radios and progressively nationalized subsystems, making configuration control important over a procurement planned to last about 15 years.

Italy has ordered 150 Centauro IIs; Brazil's challenge is different, however, because its vehicles are being acquired in small annual batches over more than a decade, increasing the possibility that early and late production vehicles will carry different radios, remote weapon stations, software and locally produced components. The planned 98 vehicles for 14 mechanized cavalry squadrons produce a mathematical average of seven Centauro IIs per squadron, but 98 divided by 14 does not leave a separate reserve for training, maintenance, or temporary unavailability. Actual squadron holdings therefore cannot be assumed to equal seven without knowing how the Brazilian Army will distribute training and reserve vehicles.

The fleet is also intended for geographically separated formations rather than one concentrated brigade: Centauro activity has involved Santa Maria in Rio Grande do Sul, Brasília and Roraima, with personnel from the 18th Mechanized Cavalry Regiment training in Italy and the two prototypes operating with the 6th Armored Infantry Brigade at Santa Maria. The recipient of the seven LED vehicles was still being finalized when the August contract was signed. At the planned acquisition horizon of roughly 15 years, 98 vehicles correspond to an average 6.53 vehicles per year, essentially one seven-vehicle lot annually. Even if procurement proceeds without interruption, that rate means the generation of a 14-squadron fleet is measured in more than a decade, and as the Army is simultaneously retaining part of the Cascavel fleet, including a modernization plan covering 98 EE-9s, the Centauro remains an incremental re-equipment process.

Brazilian industrial participation is similarly tied to procurement volume. Initial vehicles are to be produced in Italy, while assembly is planned to move from the fifth lot to IDV's Sete Lagoas facility in Minas Gerais, already used for Brazilian wheeled armored vehicle work, including Guarani 6×6s. If the full 98-vehicle program proceeds through its planned 14 lots, as many as 70 Centauro IIs could be assembled in Brazil, equivalent to 71.4% of the fleet, leaving about 28 vehicles associated with earlier foreign production. The industrial package includes technology transfer, tooling, maintenance training and progressive nationalization, with Brazilian involvement also associated with the Hitfact MkII turret, vehicle components and future domestic 120 mm ammunition production. The latter is expected to begin with training ammunition before moving toward live rounds under a separate arrangement. The two prototypes also have a 28.5% component commonality with the Guarani according to program information, providing some overlap with an existing Brazilian logistics base.

Explore More Defense News

• Land Defense News
• Naval Defense News
• Defense Aerospace News

Written by Jérôme Brahy

Jérôme Brahy is a defense analyst and documentalist at Army Recognition. He specializes in naval modernization, aviation, drones, armored vehicles, and artillery, with a focus on strategic developments in the United States, China, Ukraine, Russia, Türkiye, and Belgium. His analyses go beyond the facts, providing context, identifying key actors, and explaining why defense news matters on a global scale.