The MOWAG Pirat is an armored

Infantry tank The infantry tank was a tank concept developed by the United Kingdom and France in the years leading up to World War II. Infantry tanks were designed to support infantrymen in an attack. To achieve this, the vehicles were generally heavily arm ...

made by the Swiss company

MOWAG Mowag is a Swiss company founded in 1950, which develops, designs and produces armoured fighting vehicles for military applications in both land-only and amphibious configurations. These vehicles have gross vehicle weights ranging from 9 tonn ...

History and development

Eleven prototypes in different versions were built from 1960 to 1975. Together with the Saurer Tartaruga the MOWAG Pirat was tested by the

Swiss Army The Swiss Armed Forces (; ; ; ; ) are the military and security force of Switzerland, consisting of land and air service branches. Under the country's militia system, regular soldiers constitute a small part of the military and the rest are ...

. Instead, the Army decided to buy the American

M113 The M113 is a fully tracked armored personnel carrier (APC) that was developed and produced by the FMC Corporation. The M113 was sent to United States Army Europe in 1961 to replace the mechanized infantry's M59 APCs. The M113 was first used ...

, previously seen as an unsuitable contender. The MOWAG Pirat was the prototype of the later Mowag 3M1 Pirat. One of these tanks is now in the Full Military museum and one in the tank museum in

Thun Thun () is a List of towns in Switzerland, town and a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the administrative district of Thun (administrative district), Thun in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Canton of Bern, Bern in Switzerland. ...

. Militärmuseum Full Switzerland Marcus Bauer, Nutzfahrzeuge der MOWAG Motorwagenfabrik AG, Fachpresse Goldach, Hudson & Company, 1996

References

{{Reflist Armoured fighting vehicles of Switzerland Abandoned military projects of Switzerland Military vehicles of Switzerland