This Toyota Land Cruiser-based six-wheeled armored vehicle can destroy drones

Military vehicle maker SVI Engineering has added the MAX 3 six-wheeler ballistic vehicle - based on the chassis of the Toyota Land Cruiser J79 - to its range of versatile ballistic vehicles. The fully redesigned and armoured beast is also a drone destroyer as it comes with a drone interceptor consisting of a radar that detects the location of a hostile drone and identifies it.

After the identification of the drone, the information is sent to the battle management system, which is attached to the automated grenade launcher at the back of the MAX 3. Once the launcher takes down the drone, it can be retrieved by using an off-road motorcycle mounted on its back.

The MAX 3 was recently unveiled by SVI Engineering at the Africa Aerospace and Defence Show (AAD2022) in South Africa. As suggested by its name, the vehicle has a third axle, but also a modified second axle width to align the wheels with the front ones to fix a J79 ‘anomaly’, as per the company.

Further, the two rearmost axles get disc brakes for better stopping power as well as to compliment the vehicle's increased weight from addition of an extra set of wheels.

The sinister-looking off-roader's body is made from armored steel plate that is quite capable of surviving any attack from assault rifles and anti-personnel grenades. The 5,500 kilograms or 12,125 pounds vehicle sources power from the 4.5-litre, V8 turbodiesel engine.

As standard, it offers a protection level of EN1063 BR6 but can be optionally upgraded to BR7. SVI Engineering has added a new rear anti-roll bar and made tweaks to the suspension of the Land Cruiser J79 chassis.

The model is based on the double cab body style but SVI Engineering is also planning to sell the conversion for the single cab and the SUV version known as the Troop Carrier and WorkMate, respectively.