Ratel

The Ratel was developed as a South African infantry combat vehicle for the operational distances and rough road network of the Border War era. Its wheeled layout traded heavy tracked protection for speed, range, and simpler maintenance across southern African terrain. The family became a core mechanized infantry platform because it could move troops with their supporting weapons in the same vehicle column instead of treating infantry transport and direct fire as separate problems.

The Ratel line is best understood as a family rather than one fixed vehicle. Ratel 20 infantry carriers, 60 mm mortar vehicles, 90 mm fire-support versions, command vehicles, and observation variants all used the same basic mobility and protection concept. That made the platform useful for battalion-level formations that needed reconnaissance, infantry lift, command support, and anti-armor firepower to keep pace over long road marches.

Operationally, the Ratel became associated with highly mobile South African mechanized columns in Angola and Namibia. Its value was not just its armament, but the way it let infantry, scouts, and support weapons operate together over large distances. Later export and derivative discussions often use the Ratel as an early example of a wheeled IFV designed around regional terrain and doctrine instead of copying heavier European tracked vehicles.