John Cockerill Unveils 90mm CSE 90LP Gun on M113 Chassis, Previously Offered for BTR-3

Belgian company John Cockerill has presented the 90 mm low-recoil CSE 90LP gun mounted on the chassis of an M113 tracked armored personnel carrier.

According to Militarnyi, whose reporters attended the Eurosatory exhibition in Paris, the turret can be integrated onto both light tracked and wheeled platforms.

A two-person crew operates the turret, while the gun is loaded manually. Its ballistic protection meets STANAG 4569 Level 3 requirements, providing protection against 7.62×51 mm armor-piercing rounds fired from a distance of 30 meters.

Earlier manufacturer brochures also listed optional armor protection packages meeting STANAG 4569 Level 1 and Level 4 standards.

In addition to the main gun, the turret is armed with a coaxial 7.62 mm machine gun and can also be equipped with a 40 mm automatic grenade launcher. The CSE 90LP gun has an elevation range of −10° to +30°, enabling both direct and indirect fire missions. At its maximum elevation angle, the gun can engage targets at ranges of up to 6 km.

The turret is also fitted with eight smoke grenade launchers for deploying a smoke screen.

In the basic configuration, the vehicle is equipped with a gunner’s day sight, while a thermal imaging night-vision system is available as an option.

A laser rangefinder and a ballistic computer are used for fire control. The image from the gunner’s sight can be duplicated on the commander’s display.

The ammunition load includes a wide range of munitions: APFSDS-T (Armor-Piercing Fin-Stabilized Discarding Sabot with Tracer), HEAT-T (High-Explosive Anti-Tank with Tracer), HESH-T (High-Explosive Squash Head with Tracer), HE-T (High-Explosive with Tracer), CANISTER (a round containing a large number of shot-like projectiles), and SMK-WP-T (smoke ammunition).

This turret was previously proposed for installation on Ukrainian BTR-3 armored personnel carriers. The corresponding modification was designated BTR-3E 90CSE and given the unofficial name Puma.

Development of the fire support vehicle project began in the late 2000s.

The first prototype was presented in 2013 at the International Defence Exhibition in Abu Dhabi. However, following the exhibition, the vehicle failed to attract interest from potential customers and disappeared from the public spotlight for several years.

In January 2015, the BTR-3E 90CSE was unexpectedly sent to Thailand for trials. Overall, the prototype demonstrated good performance; however, its high cost, largely driven by the use of Belgian-made components, reduced interest in the project on the Thai side.

In the end, the vehicle was never adopted into service by any armed forces and remained a single experimental prototype.