Defense Technology International - May 2008 - (Page 17)

LIGHT AND SWEET Light armored vehicles support multiple needs JORIS JANSSEN LOK•MAROLLES-EN-HUREPOIX, FRANCE T he French army will receive the first 200 Panhard General Defense light armored wheeled vehicles by the end of the year. The ﬁrst units equipped with the 4 X 4 vehicles are six new intelligence-gathering reconnaissance brigades, or BRBs (Batteries de Reconnaissance de Brigade). The army announced the start of deliveries on Apr. 15, at which point approximately 60 of the 5-metric-ton vehicles had been handed over, says Panhard Marketing Director Charles Maisonneuve. Some 933 of the vehicles, which the French call Petits Vehicules Proteges (PVP), ordered under a €150-million ($239-million) contract, are to be delivered by 2012, with Panhard’s assembly line at Marolles turning out 15 vehicles per month. The number may increase, as there appears to be a requirement for hundreds more. The PVPs in use by BRB units will be equipped to support battleﬁeld surveillance radar, electronic warfare, weather forecasting, mini-UAVs and prisoner interrogation teams, all operating immediately behind frontlines. The operational concept is that BRB units, part of the artillery force, will work closely with armored cavalry scout squadrons. The scout squadrons operate another Panhard light armored vehicle, the VBL, equipped for probing missions that are more likely to result in direct contact with enemy forces, Maisonneuve says. The combined units will form multisource intelligence-gathering teams for conventional warfare, as well as nation-building and stabilization operations. “The interesting thing for Panhard is that we get to develop a multitude of speciﬁcally equipped PVP variants,” Maisonneuve says. PANHARD GENERAL DEFENSE Initially, however, two versions are being delivered: one to support anti-armor missile teams, which will be equipped with either a Saab Bofors Dynamics AT4 or MBDA Eryx or Milan weapon system, and a command version. The PVP has a curb weight of 4,140 kg. (9,108 lb.). It is based on a high-mobility chassis built at Panhard’s factory in Saint-Germain Laval, in central France, and a ballistic hull (Stanag 2 protection level) with a sandwich-type armor structure of aluminum, ceramic and steel. The vehicle, with a payload capacity of around 860 kg., uses a number of civilstandard components, including an Iveco 160-hp. turbo diesel engine and an automatic gearbox, to reduce production and through-life cost, says Maisonneuve. The French army is the only buyer so far, but a derivative is offered through Rheinmetall to meet a German require- ment for about 1,000 Category 1 light armored vehicles. In this competition, the Panhard vehicle is known as Gavial. Panhard, acquired in 2005 by Auverland from PSA, the holding company of car manufacturer Peugeot-Citroen, is working on PVP variants, including a conﬁguration for urban warfare and riot control that it has offered (so far unsuccessfully) to the French military’s Gendarmerie internal police force. Maisonneuve expects there will be a radar version equipped with a roof-top system like the Thales BOR-A battleﬁeld surveillance radar, which has an antenna that folds down during transit. Panhard is also working on an infantry squad carrier that could transport ﬁve fully equipped personnel. The standard PVP has a crew of three or four. The army’s PVPs will have 7.62-mm. machine guns, and it recently agreed to a change in which some 300 vehicles will carry extra armor panels to protect machine gunners from small-arms ﬁre. “Some vehicles may even get a remote weapon system that can be operated from under armor, but this would be a very expensive upgrade in relative terms, because the price of such a system is approximately equal to the price of the PVP itself,” says Maisonneuve. ■ To read a post about PVP and see more pictures, go to DTI’s home page, AviationWeek.com/dti, and click on “Extras for this issue” under “DTI Interactive.” Deliveries of the ﬁrst PVP vehicles from Panhard were announced in April. France has ordered 933. AviationWeek.com/dti MAY 2008 DEFENSE TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL 17 http://AviationWeek.com/dti http://AviationWeek.com/dti

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Defense Technology International - May 2008

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