France’s New Armored Car

France’s New Armored Car Does Not Mess Around

The husky armored car is heavily armed and ready to roll.

By Kyle Mizokami

Twitter user @Tom_Antonov

French defense contractor Nexter has unveiled a prototype of its new Jaguar armored car. Designed to act as both a reconnaissance vehicle and tank killer, the Jaguar is even more heavily armed than the U.S. Army’s Bradley Fighting Vehicle. The vehicle was unveiled before the start of the June Eurosatory 2018 defense trade show.


The ERBC Jaguar (Engin Blindé de Reconnaissance et de Combat) is a 6x6 armored car designed for both French Army reconnaissance and anti-tank units. The Jaguar is designed to replace three different vehicles in French service: the AMX-10RC reconnaissance vehicle armed with a 105-millimeter gun, ERC 90 Sagaie reconnaissance vehicles , and the VAB 'Mephisto' tank destroyer armed with HOT anti-tank guided missiles.


AMX-10RCs with the 1st Regiment Marines Infantery, Afghanistan, 2010.
Getty Images

All three of the vehicles the Jaguar replaces are more than thirty years old with obsolete armament. The 105-millimeter gun of the AMX-10RC can no longer penetrate the frontal armor of modern tanks, and the HOT anti-tank missile, comparable to the American TOW-II, is also an older system with questionable utility against new tanks.

The Jaguar is a wheeled armored vehicle with a crew of three consisting of commander, driver, and gunner. It has a six-wheel drive for cross-country travel, a 490 horsepower engine that gives is a maximum speed of 55 miles an hour, and weighs 25 tons. According to a tweet by Grant Turnbull of Shephard News, it has a PASEO electro-optical turret for detecting and observing enemy forces at a distance, and a Pilar V acoustic detection system for locating the direction of enemy weapons fire.


Twitter user @Tom_Antonov

The vehicle is heavily armed, with a 40-millimeter gun firing cased telescoped ammunition. Cased telescoped ammo, in which the projectile is fully enclosed in a shell casing, is only now coming into common use with modern armies and results in a more compact projectile. The 40-millimeter gun is useful against light armored vehicles and has an effective range of 1,500 meters. Jaguar is also fitted with a missile launcher holding two long-range MMP anti-tank missiles that hides within the turret. It also stores a second pair of MMPs as reloads. Finally, a remote-controlled 7.62-millimeter machine gun is controlled by the vehicle commander.

The Jaguar’s armor protects crews from 14.5-millimeter heavy machine guns, 155-millimeter artillery shrapnel at ranges up to 30 yards, and mine or IED explosions involving up to 20 pounds of TNT. A bolt-on/bolt-off armor system allows the French Army to increase or decrease the Jaguar’s armor, depending on the situation: Jaguar might shed most of its armor for travel or operation in low armor threat areas such as Africa, while donning additional armor going up against Russian tank forces.


Nexter

The Jaguar features a very large turret in order to protect critical systems and keep them safe behind armor. Unlike other vehicles like the U.S. Army’s Bradley whose TOW missile launchers and smoke dischargers are installed outside the turret, the Jaguar’s missiles and smoke dischargers are tucked away within the turret where they are better protected.

All of this adds up to a very capable vehicle that can take on most ground-based threats, from enemy infantry to tanks, at ranges of up to 4,000 meters. In the world of reconnaissance there are two types of recon or cavalry forces: lightly armed “sneak and peek” forces that hide and passively observe the enemy, and recon forces that expect to fight for information, duking it out with the enemy’s own recon forces. Jaguar falls solidly into the latter category.


U.S. Marine Corps LAV-25.
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Would the U.S. military find Jaguar useful? Absolutely. U.S. armored brigade combat teams, which rely on the scout variant of the Bradley for reconnaissance missions, would probably be better served by the lighter, more heavily armed Jaguar. The U.S. Marine Corps is looking for a replacement for the LAV-25 and, although it’s unknown how amphibious the Jaguar is (a key requirement for the Marines) Nexter’s armored vehicle would otherwise fill that slot nicely. While the Jaguar turret is probably not a drop-in fit for the M2 Bradley its turret and armament suite is exactly along the lines of proposed Bradley upgrades.

The French Army plans to buy at least 248 Jaguars, with 110 vehicles delivered by 2025. While the French Army for now is stuck with obsolete vehicles, the new Jaguar appears to be worth the wait.

Source: Jane's