Puma (IFV)

The Puma is a German infantry fighting vehicle (Schützenpanzer or short SPz) designed to replace the aging Marder IFVs currently in service with the Bundeswehr. Replacement began in 2010 and is scheduled for completion by 2020. Mass production began on 6 July 2009. The company responsible for the project is PSM Projekt System Management, a joint venture of Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and Rheinmetall Landsysteme. The Puma is one of the best-protected IFVs, while still having a high power-to-weight ratio. SAIC offered a derivative of the Puma as its contender in the American GCV Infantry Fighting Vehicle program.

History

Development

The Puma (formerly also named Igel (hedgehog) and Panther) started as a follow-up project to the German mid-1990s "NGP" project (Neue Gepanzerte Plattformen, "New Armored Platforms"). Its aim was to collect ideas for a common base vehicle that could be used for a variety of tasks including that of the APC, IFV, air defense and replacing and assisting the MBT in the frontline combat role. The NGP project was ended in 2001.

Infantry fighting vehicle

An infantry fighting vehicle (IFV), or mechanized infantry combat vehicle (MICV), is a type of armoured fighting vehicle used to carry infantry into battle and provide direct fire support. The Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe defines an infantry fighting vehicle as "an armoured combat vehicle which is designed and equipped primarily to transport a combat infantry squad, which is armed with an integral or organic cannon of at least 20 millimeters calibre and sometimes an antitank missile launcher."

Infantry fighting vehicles are distinct from armoured personnel carriers (APCs), which are transport vehicles armed only for self-defense and not specifically engineered to fight on their own. Consequently, they possess heavier armament and the attached rifle squad fights mounted more often than in an APC. IFVs also often have improved armour and some have ports which allow the infantry to fire personal weapons while on board.

They are typically armed with a 20 to 40 mm caliber autocannon, a coaxial machine gun and sometimes anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs). IFVs are usually tracked, but there are some wheeled vehicles too. IFVs are much less heavily armed and protected than main battle tanks, but when equipped with larger cannon or ATGMs may pose a significant threat to all but the heaviest armoured fighting vehicles.

Puma

Puma may refer to:

Animals

Companies

Vehicles

Puma (comics)

Puma (Thomas Fireheart) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is depicted as being most closely associated with Spider-Man. While originally a villain, he gained a great respect for Spider-Man and became his occasional ally.

Publication history

Puma first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #256 and was created by Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz. The inspiration for the character comes from safari cards bought by Tom DeFalco.

In the Puma's earliest appearances, he acted as a mercenary, and an antagonist to Spider-Man, but soon came to respect him. Puma was then depicted as an ally of Spider-Man, assisting him from time to time in his appearances in the The Spectacular Spider-Man series. He was associated with the superhero team known as the Outlaws for a time, and was later one of the main characters in the MODOK's 11 limited series.

Fictional character biography

Puma's real name is Thomas Fireheart, and he is of Native American descent. The tribe he belongs to (located near Hartsdale, New Mexico; Marvel Westerns: Western Legends suggests that the tribe may be the Kisani, as one of Puma's ancestors belonged to that tribe and lived at Lost Mesa) has had an ancient prophecy of the coming of a powerful being who might destroy the world for generations. Long ago, they began making preparations for this coming doom. They used mystic ceremonies and selective breeding to create a perfect warrior. Thomas Fireheart is the latest in this line of men. Though he never believed in the prophecy, he took his duties as protector of his tribe seriously, and has strived his whole life to be the best he could be, mastering his ability to turn into a powerful humanoid mountain lion werecat. He also trained in Martial Arts in Japan under a man named Master Muramoto.

Puma (marque)

Puma was a Brazilian specialist car manufacturer which built cars from 1966 until roughly 1995. High import tariffs effectively closed Brazil during much of this period to foreign-built cars. This limited the vehicles available to the average Brazilian to those built locally by foreign manufacturers such as Volkswagen and General Motors (which established Brazilian manufacturing plants), and the products of local companies. Puma also made trucks, from 1978 to 1999.

DKW years

The origin of what became the Puma was the DKW-Malzoni, built by Rino Malzoni of Matão in São Paulo (state) from around 1964. Malzoni was a keen auto racer, and at the behest of DKW-Vemag he developed a competition car based around a DKW straight-three two-stroke engine. Developed to compete with the Willys Interlagos, a locally built copy of the Alpine A108 which was outpacing DKW's heavier sedans, Malzoni developed a steel-bodied prototype. This proved too heavy, and at the São Paulo Motor Show in the fall of 1964 the light, fiberglass-skinned GT made its first appearance. It won its first race, at Interlagos in 1964. Malzoni, auto enthusiast but a lawyer by trade, proceeded to found the company Luminari Ltda with a group of other auto enthusiasts in 1964. Competition cars had bigger 1.1 litre engines with as much as 100 PS (74 kW). The cars began to sell in quantities larger than he himself could build, and on 14 September 1966 the company adopted the Puma name and began building cars in earnest.