The French Army VBCI Armoured Fighting Vehicle and Variant Piranha APC Romanian Army

The French Army had quit the project because it alone among the original partners was seeking a  with a wheeled vehicle able to operate alongside its Leclerc tanks. The army plans to order 700 VBCIs: 550 IFVs (designated the Vehicule de Combat d’Infanterie) and 150 command vehicles (Vehicule Poste de Commandement). The army subsequently wants to field specialist variants including anti-tank, mortar and engineer variants as well as a mobile gun system which may be armed with a large calibre cannon fed by a bustle mounted automatic loader.

The 28 tonne IFV, designed to be carried by the A400M aircraft, has a crew of three – commander, driver and gunner and carries eight infantrymen in the rear troop compartment. The IFV is fitted with Nexter’s Dragar one-person turret armed with a stabilised M811 25mm dual-feed cannon and 7.62mm coaxial machine gun. An FN Herstal remote weapon station mounting a 12.7mm heavy machine gun will arm command variants. A layer of titanium armour is fitted to the VBCI’s all-welded aluminium hull to protect against medium calibre threats. Under French government contract Nexter is developing an add-on armour package that should be ready in early 2008 to protect against RPG-7s and similar threats. The army will receive its first production vehicle in 2008.

Whereas both ARTEC and Nexter submitted prototype vehicles for the UK’s ‘Trials of Truth’ evaluation Mowag of Switzerland, part of General Dynamics European Land Combat Systems, submitted the Piranha Evolution, a updated Piranha, as the prototype of the Piranha V being offered to the UK will not be completed until 2008. General Dynamics UK, which is leading the FRES marketing effort, stresses the new vehicle will benefit from being the latest member of the most successful wheeled AFV family produced in the West.

Variant Mowac Piranha I, Piranha II and Piranha IIIC 8x8 APC Made Switzerland

The Piranha is also known as the LAV following its selection of the 8 x 8 Piranha I by the US Marine Corps for its Light Armored Vehicle project in 1981. The most numerous vehicle in USMC service is the LAV-25 which carries a two-man turret armed with a M242 25mm cannon The GDLS – Canada factory in London, Ontario produced 758 vehicles from 1983 to 1988 and is now building 130 new LAV-A2 for the corps. The factory was established to build 491 6 x 6 Piranha Is for the Canadian Army and the service has since bought 199 8 x 8 Bison APCs, 203 8 x 8 Coyote reconnaissance and surveillance vehicles, and 751 LAV IIIs including 480 vehicles with 25mm gun turrets.

Other customers for LAVs built by GDLS – Canada include:
• the Saudi Arabian National Guard (SANG) which purchased 1,117 8 x 8 LAV Is in 12 variants including 73 vehicles mounting the BAE Systems 120mm Armoured Mortar System and 130 assault guns fitted with the CMI Defence CTS two-person turret armed with the Cockerill Mk 8 90mm gun.
• the Australian Army which bought 257 LAV IIs to equip its reconnaissance regiments
• and, the New Zealand Army which acquired 105 LAV IIIs to mechanise its infantry battalions.

Piranha IIIC

The Mowag plant has been kept busy meeting the needs of European and other export customers including Brazil (5), Chile (167), Denmark (113), Ireland (80), Spain (18), Sweden (14) and Switzerland (887 vehicles). Alvis, now part of BAE Systems, produced more than 320 Piranha II and III vehicles for Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. In January 2006 the Belgian government announced the purchase of up to 242 8 x 8 Piranha IIIC vehicles in seven variants to replace the army’s fleets of tracked AIFVs, M113s and Leopard 1A5BE tanks making it the first NATO nation to entirely phase out tracked vehicles.

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Leclerc SKA AMX-56 MBT and Lerlerc 2015 MBT Productions French Military Industry Technologies

The Leclerc (AKA AMX-56) is in the same league as other NATO tanks and is certainly in the top three best modern MBT's. The French Leclerc is all about speed. Its the lightest modern NATO tank weighting 56tons (some 10+ tons lighter than the M1-A2), as it has a much smaller hull and turret, giving it an added bonus of excellent Strategic mobility. It carries a SACM V8X-1500 4-stroke liquid cooled V8 diesel engine, which generates 1500hp thanks to its Hyperbar process. By using exhaust flow from a gas turbine, it gives extra boost to the engines turbo charger. Added with its computerised EMS500 automatic gearbox and its lightweight, the Leclerc is able to do 0 to 30kph in less than 6 seconds. Its capable of carrying 1300 litres of diesel fuel giving it a 550km fighting range. The Leclerc MBT has a top road speed is 72 km/h and can go up 55 km/h off road thanks to its hydrogas suspension.

The Leclerc MBT is fitted with the FINDERS (fast information, navigation, decision and reporting system) battlefield management system, developed by Nexter Systems. FINDERS includes a colour map display which shows the positions of the host tank, allied and hostile forces and designated targets and can be used for route and mission planning.

The French Army has selected Nexter to equip its Leclerc main battle tanks with a terminal information system (TIS) called Icone (ergonomic communications and navigation interface). The initial phase of the contract covers the equipment of more than 100 Leclerc tanks. The Leclerc has an eight-cylinder, Wärtsilä (ex SACM) V8X-1500 1,500 hp Hyperbar diesel engine with five forward and two reverse gears. The official maximum speed by road is 72 km/h and 55 km/h cross country (speeds in excess of 80 km/h were reported on road). The maximum range is given as 550 km, and can be extended to 650 km with removable external tanks. The "hyperbar" system integrates a Turbomeca TM 307B gas turbine in the engine, acting both as a turbocharger and an APU giving auxiliary power to all systems when the main engine is shut down.

At a combat weight of just 56 tons, the Leclerc is one of the lightest main battle tanks in the world; this gives it one of the best power-to-weight ratios among the Western tanks (27 hp per tonne) and makes it one of the fastest MBTs of its generation (0 to 32 km/h in 5 seconds).

The engine exhaust, exiting at the rear left, is cooled to reduce the thermal signature of the tank. Transmission is a hydromechanical type with five forward and two reverse gears. Fuel tanks carry 1,300 litres and act as extra protection; two 200-litre external tanks can be fitted on the rear of the turret, but have to be jettisoned before entering combat since they limit turret rotation. The 120mm 52-calibre smoothbore gun is fitted with a thermal sleeve and muzzle reference system. Fumes are exhausted with a compressed air unit. The gun, which fires APFSD (armour-piercing fin-stabilised discarding sabot) and HEAT (high-explosive anti-tank) rounds, has a firing rate of 12 rounds a minute. The aiming system is entirely electrical for improved acceleration.

The tank has an automatic loading system, which allows cross-country fire-on-the-move against mobile targets. 22 rounds of ready-to-use ammunition are carried. The tank is also armed with a 12.7mm machine gun co-axial with the main gun and a roof-mounted 7.62mm anti-aircraft gun.

Lerlerc 2015 MBT French Military

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New Generation MILAN-ER Medium-Range ATGW Franch VS Javelin U.S

MILAN-ER French Army

The Javelin is competition with the Rafael Advanced Defence Systems Spike to replace the French Army’s wireguided MILAN medium-range ATGW. The army eventually hopes to acquire up to 500 launchers and 3,000 missiles.

European missile manufacturer MBDA has produced more than 10,000 firing posts and 360,000 MILAN missiles for 43 customers since 1974. Following the collapse of the British, French and German medium range TRIGAT project to develop a replacement system MBDA has developed a new generation MILAN. This work is being supervised by France’s Délégation Générale pour l'Armement under the terms of an agreement between the French and German governments.

Over the past three years MBDA has conducted successful launches of the MILAN ER (Extended Response) missile using the new ADT (ADvanced Technologies) firing post. The new generation MILAN retains the weapon’s proven wire-guidance system but extends the range from 1,950 m to 3,000 m. Ruag (now Saab Bofors Dynamics Switzerland) had developed a new dual purpose 115 mm warhead for the MILAN ER that is able to pierce more than 1.1 m of armour protected by ERA or to punch through 2.5 m of concrete.

The fully digital ADT incorporates built-in test facilities, improved maintenance and a training system. The ADT is designed to be backwards compatible so that existing MILAN users can exhaust their stocks of MILAN 2 and 3 missiles.

The South African Army became the first customer for the new system when it signed an €18 million contract at the beginning of 2007 for MILAN 3 missiles, ADT firing posts and simulators. In South African service the
MILAN ER/ADT will complement the Denel Aerospace Systems Ingwe which was locally developed to meet the requirement for a long-range missile that can be launched from helicopters and ground platforms.

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France AMX 30 AU F1 MBT And Nexter Caesar Artillery Truck

The most successful truck mounted design thus far has been the Nexter CAESAR (CAmion Equipe d'un Systems d'ARtillerie). Based around an 155/52 upgrade of the Nexter TRF1 gun, rounds fired from CAESAR can reach as far as 42km and is based around a 6x6 tactical vehicle.

France received its first systems in June 2008, opting to mount their systems on a Renault Trucks Defense Sherpa 5 chassis as an alternative to a further upgrade of its heavy tracked self propelled system. The first four guns to be fielded equip the 68e Régiment d’Artillerie d’Afrique deployed to Lebanon with Unifil, replacing the units tracked AMX 30 AU F1 Main Beatle Tank self propelled howitzer (SPH) predecessor. Delivery of all 80 systems is due to be competed in 2011. Thailand is the first export customer for CAESAR with a contract for 18 Sherpa mounted systems issued in 2006.

AMX 30 AU F1

The Saudi Arabian National Guard is acquiring 80 Unimog based CAESARs together with Thales’ ATLAS artillery C4I system to equip three regiments replacing 155 mm M198 and 105 mm M102 towed artillery systems. A private venture, Soltam’s C-130 capable ATMOS 2000 marries a Tatra T815 truck with a crew of four and carries 32 155mm rounds for either L39, L45 or L52 barrels, the latter offering ranges of over 40km with an Extended Range Full-Bore - Base Bleed (ERFB-BB) round.

Nexter Caesar 155mm 52-calibre

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French Air Force Mirage 2000D's In Operation

French Aircraft Mirage 2000D

Working in total interoperability with the United States, France retained its sovereignty over the use of its forces. The allied CAOC at Al Kharj in Saudi Arabia, operating under US command, allocated 6 sorties a day to the French planes. The CAOC planned the missions in line with France's rules of engagement, then submitted them for approval to the French commander-in-chief, who checked they complied with the French government's directives before the French planes were tasked.

The Mirage 2000Ds first took part in strike missions during operation Anaconda, which was designed to eradicate the Taliban, then later provided air support for ISAF troops and took part in a number of anti-terrorist operations.

Afghanistan was a particularly complex theatre of operations, with terrain elevations often higher than 4,000 metres making conventional C-SAR techniques impracticable, and extreme temperatures ranging from -20°C in February to +35° or even 40° in the summer months. In addition, the distance between the base and the targets made fuel management crucial: the Mirages were in the air for at least 51/2 hours and needed to be refuelled four times in flight. And rerouting opportunities in the event of a problem were few and far between.

Flight Lieutenant Onselaer, operational utilisation officer on Mirage 2000D, gave us a run-down on the aircraft systems and spoke about the lessons learned from this operation in Afghanistan. The French forces had two types of designation pods available, both from Thales.

 They mainly used the PDLCT-S, which operates in IR mode and issuitable for both daytime and night time missions. But they also had the ATLIS system, which operates in TV mode and delivers images of excellent quality during daylight operations and was ideal for certain types of targets and mission profiles. The pods were of course used on strike missions, which is the main role of France's Mirage 2000Ds, but they also made an appreciable contribution to mission success during the critical refuelling phases.

The Afghanistan air campaign highlighted the progress that has been made in terms of datalink capabilities and the coherence of the image chain. For the optronic reconnaissance tasks that were secondary objectives on certain missions, the imagery sourced by the pod was digitised, interpreted using the MINDS multi-sensor image interpretation and dissemination system, and relayed to central command via the Syracuse satellite system. Chiefs of Staff could "order" images and receive the corresponding photographs just a few hours later.

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French Air Force Mirage 2000 Aircraft

Aircraft Mirage 2000 The Mission Fighting

French pilots began their stay by familiarisation missions, in order to memorise alternate airfields (with their
VFR and IFR procedures) and some key landscape elements such as specific Hellenic islands and coastline.

The air to air missions featured:

■ Basic Fighter Manoeuvring in one versus one set ups,
■ Two versus two Full up and Heaters set ups,
■ Four versus two Heaters versus Full up set ups. (Heaters means using IR combat missiles only, Full-up means using war time configuration without any limitation.)

French Mirage 2000s carried one 1300 l fuselage tank and training Magic II missiles. 16 sorties were achieved on a daily basis by both Air Forces, with an average flight time of 1 hour per sortie. All operational procedures were in English.

 Debriefing.

The Mirage 2000 availability was excellent, all along the exercise with a 98% rate. No mission was cancelled due to a mechanical failure. The Mirage 2000 demonstrated its benefits in the Greek combat zones, allowing pilots to fly low altitude manoeuvres where the aircraft is particularly efficient. The increased power of the M53-P2 made combat manoeuvres easier for Hellenic pilots.

The Hellenic 331 pilots are accomplished air to surface specialists. They were excellent in BFM missions and flew their Mirage 2000s efficiently. They specially demonstrated strong capacities for learning and enhancing air to air BVR techniques. They are now impatient to receive their brand new Mirage 2000-5 Mk2s.

 For the French 1/5 pilots it was really a very instructive exchange with a very good atmosphere, and
interesting missions. The global feeling with Hellenic pilots was excellent. “The operation shows the depth of our friendship and our desire to exchange again our operational experience in the near future”.

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