Companies gear up for light recon vehicle competitions.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: European defense contracts

During the next several months, the European military-vehicle industry will be watching closely a French and a British competition for new armored reconnaissance trucks, expected to be used in peacekeeping operations and low-intensity conflicts.

Last March, France's procurement agency, the Delegation Generale pour l'Armement (DGA), awarded four contracts for the Petit Vehicule Protege (PVP), or light protected vehicle program.

The competitors include three French firms--Soframe/Lohr, Auverland and Panhard--and a British company, Vickers Defence.

Vickers officials said they were particularly pleased to have been selected, because it is rare for any major French military procurement to include foreign firms.

The PVP program may involve up to 1,500 vehicles. Each competitor was expected to submit a prototype this month, in preparation for September trials. A contract award is scheduled for 2003.

The PVP will be a rapid-deployment vehicle--transportable by helicopter--that can travel on any type of terrain, with significant off-road use. There will be two variants--infantry and command post--and each will carry a crew of five. It must provide ballistic protection for the crew and the engine. The French government also required that the PVP candidates be derived from existing vehicles or at least have commercially available subcomponents.

Panhard's PVP prototype is based on a DaimlerChrysler 4x4 chassis. The company has been supplying tactical wheeled vehicles to the French Army for many years and is well known in the industry. Panhard & Levassor was the first in France to manufacture an internal combustion engine in 1876.

Vickers' offering is the so-called RG-32M, a mine-proof 4x4 truck based on an existing vehicle that was modified to meet the French requirements, said Tim Burleigh, a Vickers executive.

The same truck also was one of five platforms selected for the British future command-and-liaison vehicle, which will replace the Ferret light 4x4 scout truck equipped with a machine gun. The United Kingdom will spend at least $250 million on 422 vehicles, to enter service in 2006.

The future command and liaison vehicle (FCLV) project will be used by the U.K. Army for reconnaissance tasks, which were originally performed by the Ferret. A production contract for FCLV could be awarded in March 2004. The trials have been completed.

Christopher F. Foss, armor and artillery specialist at Jane's International, said that the FCLV will have to be...