The Sidam 25 is a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun developed in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 from the chassis of the American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 M113

M113 Armored Personnel Carrier

The M113 is a fully tracked armored personnel carrier that has formed the backbone of the United States Army's mechanized infantry units from the time of its first fielding in Vietnam in April 1962. The M113 was the most widely used armored vehicle of the U.S...

 armoured personnel carrier

Armoured personnel carrier

An armoured personnel carrier is an armoured fighting vehicle designed to transport infantry to the battlefield.APCs are usually armed with only a machine gun although variants carry recoilless rifles, anti-tank guided missiles , or mortars...

. Due to the choice of basic chassis for the Sidam 25, components and spare parts are both cheap, and readily available because of the widespread use of the basic M113. Beginning production in 1989, OTO Breda

Oto Melara

Oto Melara is an Italian defence company with factories in Brescia and La Spezia. It was founded in 1905 as a joint venture of Vickers and Terni. During World War I, Vickers Terni produced many weapons with calibre 40 mm and upwards. In 1929 the company was renamed Odero Terni Orlando with the...

 built a large turret to accommodate the four Oerlikon

Oerlikon Contraves

Rheinmetall Air Defence AG is a division of German armament manufacturer Rheinmetall, created when the company's Oerlikon Contraves unit was renamed on 1 January 2009 and integrated with Rheinmetall's other air-defence products...

KBA cannon and remodelled the hull of the M113 slightly to provide side-access to the internal space of the vehicle by the addition of a side-mounted door.

Armament

The Oerlikon KBA cannon have an effective range of about 2,000 metres (6,650 feet) and can engage low-flying targets with good accuracy within that range. Firing at 2,400 rounds per minute, the turret contains 600 rounds of ammunition providing usually, eight bursts of around two seconds each. An internal magazine also houses 30 armour-piercing rounds that can be used against enemy vehicles. The turret can rotate through 360° and the guns can be raised 87° or lowered 5° from the horizontal position.

Propulsion

The Sidam 25 is powered by a single 6-cylinder Detroit 6V-53T engine, which will deliver 266 hp and drive the Sidam 25 to a top road speed of 69 km/h (40 mph) and allow the vehicle to climb vertical obstacles of about 0.61 metres in height and climb gradients of about 60 per cent incline or cross trenches 1.68 metres wide.