EBRC Jaguar
The Engin Blindé de Reconnaissance et de Combat Jaguar or EBRC Jaguar is a six-wheel armoured fighting vehicle developed and manufactured by KNDS France, Arquus and Thales. It is intended to succeed three reconnaissance and/or fire support vehicles in French service—the AMX-10 RC, ERC 90 Sagaie and VAB HOT—and entered service in 2022 after twelve years of development.
The Jaguar is a component of the French SCORPION programme. It is designed for armoured reconnaissance as well as for combat in complex environments such as urban and mountainous areas. 238 units are expected to be delivered to the French Army by 2030 and all 300 vehicles planned by 2035. They will equip seven of its armoured cavalry regiments.
Background
In 2009, the French army expressed an operational requirement for a future medium cavalry vehicle. This led to the Engin blindé de reconnaissance et de combat program, launched to address four key issues: operational mobility, flexibility of use, protection and aggression. Twenty or so upstream and technical-operational studies on sub-assemblies carried out by the DGA will then make it possible to establish "possible architectures". These very different architectures are the result of choices such as "wheeled or tracked armor", "6×6 or 8×8", "manned or remotely-operated turret" or "armor in one piece or with additional kits"; all this, while maintaining coherence with the other pillars of SCORPION, the programme to renew the army's medium-range armoured capabilities.Dialogue between the Direction Générale de l'Armement, the army and the manufacturers, a consortium formed by Nexter, Arquus and Thales, narrowed the choice to four architectures, then two, before arriving at the reference architecture: a 6×6 vehicle with a manned turret combining a main weapon system with a missile and a remotely-operated turret. The Jaguar was born, an ambitious solution which, with a few exceptions, was not based on any existing components.
The development and purchase of this new generation of armoured fighting vehicles, part of a programme styled SCORPION, was announced in December 2014. It was entrusted by the French Ministry of Defense to a. The long-awaited first stage of the programme was launched in October 2014. This first stage, for a total cost of nearly €5.1 billion, includes the replacement of the AMX-10 RC, ERC-90 Sagaie and VAB HOT by the EBRC Jaguar, the replacement of the VAB by the VBMR Griffon, the modernization of the Leclerc tank as well as the development of a unified combat information network to ensure the coherence of systems in service.
Under this initial €5 billion investment plan up to 2025, 110 armoured reconnaissance and combat vehicles and 780 multi-role armoured vehicles were to be acquired. The content of the following stages of the programme was to be consolidated at a later date to achieve the target set by the 2014-2019 Military Programming Law and updated by the Defence Council's amendments in April 2016: 1,722 heavy VBMR Griffon, 522 lightweight VBMR, 248 EBRC Jaguar and 200 renovated Leclerc XLR.
In the 2019-2025 LPM adopted in July 2018, the SCORPION programme's targets were revised upwards, with the planned acquisition of 1,872 VBMR Griffon, 978 VMBR-L Serval, 300 EBRC Jaguar, as well as the upgrade of 200 Leclerc tanks and 18 DCL armoured recovery vehicles to the XLR standard, all to be delivered by 2030. The total cost of the programme was estimated at €11 billion, including €2 billion earmarked for the 300 Jaguar. Two orders for 20 and 42 vehicles were signed in April 2017 and September 2020. Deliveries of the first units were somewhat delayed; the Jaguar being an "extremely complex technological object" was, in particular, highlighted among the reasons by Colonel Damien Sandeau, a SCORPION programme officer at the French Army General Staff.
Of the first 20 vehicles received by the DGA in December 2021, 18 were delivered to the 1st African Chasseur Regiment at Canjuers, in charge of training all the regiments to be equipped with the vehicle. This first batch is to be joined by 18 additional vehicles in 2022, enabling the formation of the crews of the army's seven light cavalry regiments to begin. The 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment will be the first to be equipped with the Jaguar in May 2022, then the Régiment d'Infanterie Chars de Marine in early 2023, followed in no specific order by the 1st Spahi Regiment, 4th Chasseur Regiment, 3rd Hussar Regiment, 1st Marine Infantry Regiment and 1st Parachute Hussar Regiment.
In October 2018, the Belgian government formalized the plan to purchase 60 EBRC Jaguar and 382 VBMR Griffon for €1.5 billion. The vehicles will replace the Belgian Army's Piranha IIIC armoured personnel carriers and Dingo 2 infantry mobility vehicles. The deal includes spare parts and secure communications equipment. Deliveries are scheduled to start in 2025.
Design
When the first stage of the programme was launched in 2014, the aim was to achieve an acquisition cost of €3 million per EBRC and €1 million per VBMR. This was expected to be achieved in part through the large quantities of SCORPION vehicles to be acquired, enabling economies of scale. The consortium opted for the VBMR Griffon to share 70% of its components with the Jaguar to save on development, production and maintenance costs as well as to facilitate logistics. This is reflected by the rather cheap average unit cost of the Griffon and thereby the Serval, for vehicles with their capabilities. Constituents shared include, for example, the suspension, supplied by Strasbourg-based company Quiri, the Elips intercom system by Argenteuil-based Elno, the PILAR V acoustic gunfire detection and localization system by Lyon-based Metravib Defence, as well as the vetronics. Featuring a wide range of state-of-the-art technologies, the Jaguar ultimately ended up costing twice as much as expected with an estimated unit cost of €6 million.File:EBRC Jaguar armoured reconnaissance vehicle.jpg|thumb|An EBRC Jaguar of the French Army, 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment, 2023 Bastille Day Parade
As an armoured reconnaissance vehicle, the Jaguar's main mission is to get as close as possible to the enemy to gather intelligence without being detected. This requires it to be mobile, discreet, agile, well-protected, well-armed and able to see far, day and night. The vehicle has the architecture of a tank, with a driver at the front, turret in the middle, rear-wheel drive, except that it is wheeled, instead of tracked. Whether in powertrain, sensors, vetronics or firepower, the Jaguar is claimed to condense the latest technological advances. It has been described as being equivalent to going "from 2G to 5G" for the French cavalry crewman.
The first differentiating evolution is mobility. The vehicle has a higher power-to-weight ratio and greater maneuverability than previous generations. Featuring a seven-speed automatic gearbox, independent running gears, rear steering and six-wheel drive, the Jaguar can reach a maximum speed of 90 km/h on roads and tracks, 70 km/h off-road, as well as up to 15 km/h, forwards or backwards, on very steep slopes. Its 500-liter fuel tank has a range of up to 800 km. Equipped with a variable ground clearance, as well as a tire pressure variation system and a run-flat device, it benefits from great crossing capacity on all types of terrain, whether road, rock or mud. The vehicle is surprisingly quiet, despite being equipped with a militarized variant of the Volvo D11 500 hp six-cylinder in-line turbodiesel engine. The engine is housed in a soundproof compartment and is able to run on different types of fuel, facilitating replenishment wherever in the world French forces would be deployed.
To approach the "prey" discreetly, manufacturers have worked on the vehicle's signature, and its adjustable suspension allows the pilot to shelter behind a trench, lowering it to let only the surveillance systems protrude, or raising it to engage the enemy. The body height can be adjusted by means of a hydraulic system to four positions: "park", for loading onto wagons or long-term parking, then "road", "intermediate" and "off-road". In off-road, the maximum elevation of 47 cm allows river fording of 1.2 m and overcoming obstacles 50 cm high. The Jaguar weighs 22 tonnes unladen and 25 tonnes while combat ready. The specifications regarding strategic mobility stipulated that the vehicle must be air-transportable by A400M. The French army has retained a 300 kg weight reserve, which is essential for future upgrades.
The Jaguar is designed to offer STANAG 4569 Level 4 armour protection as standard, capable of withstanding 14.5 mm armour-piercing ammunition, 155 mm artillery shell splinters, IEDs and mine blasts. In addition to the thickness of the armour, the underbody architecture has been designed around hard points that "reflect" the blast effect outwards. Better protected than its predecessors, the Jaguar will be able to stay in the combat zone longer and not necessarily try to avoid it. Armour protection levels can be raised beyond STANAG Level 4 through the installation of a modular armour package.
The vehicle integrates an overpressure protection system in order to keep the crew compartments safe from chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats. The interior has air conditioning and heating for comfort, as well as an electrical device for reheating food and heating water for tea or coffee. Space has been optimized: whereas an AMX-10 RC crew has four men, with a loader to place the shells and a gunner positioned between the commander's legs, the new Jaguar is crewed by three men, a driver, a gunner and a commander, two of which are in the turret. The commander and gunner access the vehicle via two hatches located on the turret roof above their respective stations. The driver access his compartment at the front of the hull, via an armoured motorized hinged flap, opening to the right, that covers it. Once on board, the space is ample and modular, with adjustable and/or articulated seats and controls. When the 40 mm gun fires, there's little to no recoil inside, thanks to the rotating breech, reducing both risk and noise.