15 January 2021 was notified that another 23 December 2020 armaments Department (Direction Générale de l Armement - DGA) of the Ministry of the French armed forces gave to a consortium of French companies Nexter Systems and Texelis a contract to supply the French army 364 of the first serial multipurpose Serval armored vehicles with wheel formula 4x4, also known as Leger VBMR (Véhicule blindé multi-rôles).
New French armored vehicle Nexter Serval (VBMR Leger) (c) Nexter
364 Serval vehicles are ordered in three versions - patrol (actually armored personnel carriers), reconnaissance and communications. The first 108 Serval vehicles under the contract should be delivered in 2022 - 12 in the first half of the year and 96 in the second half of the year, all of them will be performed in the patrol version.
In total, the French army plans to purchase 489 Serval vehicles by the end of 2025, and 978 Serval vehicles by 2030, and it is planned to create at least two more versions of the vehicle (sanitary and electronic warfare), in the future it is possible to develop several more options (commander, engineer, advanced artillery observer vehicles). In the future, it is possible to purchase up to 2000 Serval units for the complete replacement of VAB (4x4) armored personnel carriers and parts of VBL light armored vehicles in the French army (VAB APCs are also subject to replacement with new armored vehicles with a 6x6 wheel formula VBMR Griffon and EBRC Jaguar). Earlier it was stated that the cost of one Serval machine in serial purchases should be from 500 to 700 thousand euros (without the cost of special equipment). The French gendarmerie is also showing interest in Serval-a model of the corresponding variant of the Serval Gendarmerie car was shown in 2019.
Recall that on February 12, 2018, Nexter Systems (KNDS) received a DGA contract for the development of advanced "light" armored vehicles VBMR Leger for the French armed forces. The VBMR Leger, now called Serval, is the third model of the French army's advanced wheeled armored vehicles under the SCORPION program (Synergie du contact renforcée par la polyvalence et l'infovalorisation), after the previously contracted 6x6 armored vehicles VBMR Griffon and EBRC Jaguar (to be produced by a consortium of Nexter, Arquus and Thales).
The contract was awarded to Nexter based on the results of a tender in which the main competitors were Renault Truck Defense (RTD, now Arquus, part of the Volvo group, offered a variant of its ACMAT Bastion HM car in the tender) and Thales group (offered a variant of the well-known Australian Bushmaster car). In fact, the project chosen by the French Ministry of the Armed Forces VBMR Leger from Nexter is a lightweight two-axle version of the famous armored vehicle Nexter TITUS with a wheel formula of 6x6.
A public presentation of a mock-up of the Serval machine was made in September 2018. It is reported that to date, 10 prototypes of the machine have been manufactured, which have been undergoing tests since September 2019.
Detailed characteristics of the Serval have not yet been disclosed, but it is reported that the vehicle will have a full combat weight of about 15 tons (according to other sources-up to 17 tons), enhanced mine protection and a capacity in the patrol varint of 10 equipped people (including two crew members) equipped with the FELIN system. The vehicle will be equipped with the SCORPION combat Network Information System (SICS) and a remote-controlled machine gun module with a 12.7 mm machine gun.
Serval vehicles will be manufactured at Nexter's main tank-building facility in Roan, with Texelis (Limoges) as the contractor for the development and production of the vehicle's chassis (suspension and transmission).
The French army in the period 2018-2031 also plans to purchase 1,872 VBMR Griffon armored vehicles (to replace the VAB armored personnel carrier fleet) and 300 EBRC Jaguar armored vehicles (to replace the AMX-10RC and ERC-90S gun armored vehicles).
New French armored vehicle Nexter Serval (VBMR Leger) (c) Nexter
One of the prototypes of the new French armored vehicle Nexter Serval (VBMR Leger) (c) Nexter
