The soldiers received the first Servals this week. THOMAS SAMSON / AFP
Thirty first copies of these light armored vehicles were delivered to the 3rd RPIMa.
The Army continues to modernize. The old VABs, the armored forward vehicles that entered service in 1976, and the AMX 10 RC light tanks of the early 1980s gave way to new equipment. After the arrival of the Griffons, for troop transport, and that of the Jaguars, these armored reconnaissance and combat vehicles, the military received the first Servals this week. Thirty examples of these armored vehicles, lighter than the Griffon, were delivered to the 3rd RPIMa. For the Army, the shift is not only material since this equipment marks the entry into the era of collaborative combat.
Produced by the companies Nexter and Texelis, 119 Serval should be delivered in 2023. A total of 364 copies have been ordered to be supplied by 2025, explained the Ministry of the Armed Forces this week. In 2030, the armies hope to have received 978 copies, if the objectives set are respected.
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The previous military programming law 2019-2025, which will soon be replaced, provided for 3,000 “median” armored vehicles: Griffon, Jaguar, Serval and MEPAC (on-board mortar). The Griffons have been being delivered since 2019. 450 have already been delivered. The objective is 1872 copies. Griffon and Serval will replace the fleet of some 2,700 VABs. Eventually, the army should receive 300 Jaguars. About 40 were delivered.
Given the engagement in the Sahel, the “median” segment of the army had been considered a priority for the modernization of the army. This effort ” led to the postponement of work on heavy equipment, in the field of tanks and artillery “, noted the Court of Auditors in its report on the LPM published last year. The need to make up for France’s weaknesses in heavy weapons, given the new geopolitical environment, could lead the General Staff to review its objectives.
An important step
The arrival of this new equipment marks an important step for the “Scorpion” project launched in 2010. With Scorpion, and in particular its SICS communication system, the army wants to take hold of the concept of “collaborative” combat. This is to allow each unit on the battlefield to communicate with each other to share the same “situational assessment” and distribute roles more effectively. Concretely a Serval could detect a target which would be destroyed by a Jaguar, even if this one had not identified it so quickly.
The project is ambitious. “ We see the beginnings of this in the way the Ukrainians fight, in particular by using their drones to target their opponents “, we explain within the army. The military hopes to be able to convince other allies to join “the Scorpion club”. But for the moment, only Belgium has taken the plunge with the Camo partnership, which plans to share the same armaments. Scorpion will have to manage to find its place in the logic of a NATO coalition, dominated by other materials.
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