A Piranha 3C armored personnel carrier of the Romanian army sank while trying to cross the Borc Danube arm during the Saber Guardian 23 military exercise.

MApN said the carrier was raised from a depth of 8 meters after it sank due to water seeping in, but no crew members were injured.

According to the ministry, the commission will find out the circumstances of the incident.

TVR News published blank footage showing the armored vehicle swim a few meters, suddenly tilt and disappear underwater.

MApN, about the submersion of an armored personnel carrier to a depth of up to 8 meters: “The crew reported the penetration of water inside”

“The mentioned event took place on Saturday, June 3, around 9:00 a.m., in the training area in the Bordušani district, Jalomica County, during training exercises involving the crossing of the Borča arm by amphibious armored vehicles. As part of these measures, an event involving the sinking and subsequent raising of an armored personnel carrier was recorded. As a result of the incident, none of the crew members were injured,” the MApN reports.

According to the ministry, during maneuvers to force the watercourse, the crew of the Piranha 3C armored personnel carrier belonging to the South-Eastern Multinational Brigade reported that water had entered the combat vehicle.

“After the emergency application of standard rescue and personnel evacuation procedures, all crew members were brought safely to shore. The aircraft carrier sank at a distance of about 15 m from the shore, at a depth of about 8 m,” the Ministry of Defense said in a statement.

“Subsequently, on June 4, the combat vehicle was removed with the help of means of response and evacuation of increased power from the structures of material and technical support and evacuated to the repair base of the General Staff of the Ground Forces,” the message says. that on this date, “procedures are being carried out to assess the technical condition of the transporter, which has already undergone repairs, with the aim of bringing it into working condition.”

“At the level of the General Staff of the Ground Forces, an administrative commission was established to investigate the circumstances of the production of this training event. In addition, after formulating the conclusions of the research commission, on the basis of the collected data, the needs for adjusting operational procedures in similar situations will be analyzed in order to limit the risks associated with the implementation of orders in real situations of forcing watercourses as much as possible in the future,” the Ministry of Education and Culture also reports.

Amphibious armored personnel carrier Piranha 3C

The Romanian Army has purchased 31 Piranha IIIC armored personnel carriers with a 12.7 mm machine gun turret in installments since 2007 for €47 million. Later in 2017, MApN bought 12 more “TBT 8×8 PIRANHA III C Chassis Derivatives” for another €42 million.

All Piranha 3C carriers are in service with the multinational NATO brigade in Craiova, which is led by Romania.

The Piranha 3C is an amphibious armored personnel carrier that can carry up to eight soldiers and weighs about 16 tons. The protection level of STANAG 4569 is 3/3a/3b.

12 derivative vehicles are mobile command posts, mortars, evacuation and repair tractors, medical evacuation vehicles, and CBRN reconnaissance vehicles.