Thursday, June 26, 2014

Meet Britain Scout Armoured Fighting Vehicle


The first pre-production member of the General Dynamics UK Scout Specialist Vehicle (Scout SV) family of tracked armoured fighting vehicles (AFV) for the British Army was shown for the first time at Defence Vehicle Dynamics (DVD) on 25 June 2014.

This was the Protected Mobility Reconnaissance Support (PMRS) model that was rolled out at the facilities of General Dynamics European Land Systems - Santa Bárbara Sistemas in Spain on 12 June. The PMRS will soon return to Spain for its extensive trials programme.

The Scout vehicles are the intended replacement for the Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked) - CVR(T) - family of vehicles and are expected to enter service from later this decade as a key part of Army 2020.

Speaking at DVD, Philip Dunne, the UK minister for defence equipment, support, and technology, refused to be drawn on whether he would place a production contract for Scout before the country's general election in 2015, saying only that the project was currently in the demonstration phase and that progress was "so far, so good".

The PMRS is fitted with a Kongsberg Protector Remote Weapon Station (RWS) armed with a stabilised .50 M2 HB machine gun (MG) with a fire-on-the-move capability and banks of grenade launchers.

General Dynamics UK is quoting a combat weight of 38 tonnes for the PMRS but with a proven stretch potential to 42 tonnes to take into account any future requirements.

PMRS has a maximum crew of six including commander, gunner, and driver, plus three dismounts.

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