FV101 Scorpion
The FV101 Scorpion is a British armoured reconnaissance vehicle and light tank. It was the lead vehicle and the fire support type in the Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance, CVR, family of seven armoured vehicles. Manufactured by Alvis, it was introduced into service with the British Army in 1973 and was withdrawn in 1994. More than 3,000 were produced and used as reconnaissance vehicles or light tanks.
It held the Guinness world record for the fastest production tank, recorded doing at the QinetiQ vehicle test track in Chertsey, Surrey, on 26 January 2002.
History
The CVR family of vehicles came from a British Army requirement for an armoured fighting vehicle that could be rapidly airlifted to trouble spots. The Armoured Vehicle Reconnaissance was supposed to carry both a gun and an anti-tank missile but it was not possible to design an air portable vehicle to the specification. The limits on both size and weight led to the use of aluminium alloy for the hull and an adapted car engine for propulsion. The anti-tank capability was given to a dedicated vehicle, Striker, while what became Scorpion would use a 76 mm gun in the fire support role.In 1967, Alvis was awarded the contract to produce 30 CVR prototypes. Vehicles P1–P17, the Scorpion prototypes, were delivered on time and within the budget. After extensive hot and cold weather trials in Norway, Australia, Abu Dhabi and Canada, the Scorpion was accepted by the British Army in May 1970, with a contract for 275, which later rose to 313 vehicles. The first production vehicles were completed in 1972 and the first British regiment to be equipped with the Scorpion were the Blues and Royals of the Household Cavalry in 1973.
Alvis built more than 3,000 Scorpion vehicles for the British Army, Royal Air Force Regiment and the export market. All of the CVR vehicles were to be air-portable; and two Scorpions could be carried in a Lockheed C-130 Hercules. Another requirement of the CVR project was the low ground pressure, similar to that of a soldier on foot; this would serve it well in the boggy conditions of the Falklands War.
Armament
The Scorpion was armed with the low velocity 76 mm L23A1 gun, which could fire high-explosive, HESH, smoke and canister rounds. Storage was provided for 40 or 42 rounds. A 7.62 mm coaxial L7 GPMG was also fitted, as were two multi-barrelled smoke grenade dischargers, one on each side of the turret. The main armament has an elevation of 35 degrees and a depression of 10 degrees; the turret has a full 360-degree traverse. The traverse was however hand-cranked, a cost-saving feature that made traversing the turret relatively slow and laborious relative to other vehicles of its type. This gun was later deemed to be unsatisfactory, as RAF testing showed that the lack of a fume extraction system caused toxic fumes to enter the fighting compartment, endangering the crew's health.Some Scorpions used the Cockerill Mk3 90mm gun instead. This weapon could fire the following rounds:
- APFSDS: muzzle velocity 1210 m/s; projectile mass 2.5 kg; penetration 100 mm RHA @ 60 degree obliquity
- HE-T: muzzle velocity 714 m/s; projectile mass 5.1 kg with 1.1 kg of filling;
- HEAT-T: muzzle velocity 890 m/s; projectile mass 4.1 kg; penetration 250 mm of RHA @ 0 degree obliquity
- HESH-T: muzzle velocity 800 m/s; projectile mass 4.5 kg with 1.2 kg of filling
Engine
Armour
The FV101 was a very light armoured vehicle, weighing in at a mere 8 tonnes. This meant some compromises had to be made on protection. The vehicle had 12.7 mm of sloped aluminium armour on both the front and sides, giving an average effective thickness of 25 mm.The FV101 had all-around protection from shell fragments and 7.62 mm rounds, and the heavily sloped frontal arc was designed to be resistant to 14.5 mm rounds fired from. The initial manufacture of the aluminium armour resulted, after time and effects of the environment, in failure; stress corrosion cracking which seriously affected all early builds.
Other systems
The vehicle was fitted with a nuclear, biological, chemical protection system, image intensification sights for gunner and driver and a floatation screen. A commode was located under the commander's seat. An internal water tank and a boiling vessel for cooking and heating water were also provided.Service history
The Scorpion has been used by the armed forces of Belgium, Botswana, Brunei, Chile, Honduras, Iran, Indonesia, Ireland, Jordan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Oman, Philippines, Spain, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. The Iranian army acquired 250 Scorpions in the late 1970s and a number of them are still in use after being refurbished locally as the Tosan tank. Scorpions were on occasion deployed to main UK airports as a show of force against possible terrorist threats, e.g., Operation Marmion at Heathrow Airport in 1974. Similar operations in 2003 used the then-current Scimitar.Combat use
B Squadron, Blues and Royals were airlifted and deployed into the Akrotiri and Dhekelia Sovereign Base areas, during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus 1974.Two troops from B Squadron, Blues and Royals served in the Falklands War. One troop was equipped with four Scorpions, the other with four FV107 Scimitars. These were the only armoured vehicles used in action by the British Army during the conflict. Two Scorpions and two Scimitar supported a diversionary attack by Scots Guards on Argentine Marines' entrenchments in the southern slopes of Mount Tumbledown in the early hours of 13 June 1982. One Scorpion manoeuvred off the track and was disabled by an anti-tank mine.
Scorpions also served in the Gulf War. The 16th/5th The Queen's Royal Lancers deployed in the first Gulf War using all variants of the CVR range carrying out the role of force reconnaissance for the British spearhead towards Iraq, operating forward of other official green army units. The 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards, a reconnaissance regiment, had 32 and the close reconnaissance troops of the armoured regiments each had eight. They were also used by No. 1 Squadron RAF Regiment, which was attached to the British 1st Armoured Division.
Foreign users
The Botswana Defence Force, the Iranian Army and the Nigerian Army continue to use Scorpions, in some cases up-armed with the 90 mm Cockerill.The Iranian army used its Scorpion tanks in the Iran–Iraq War, with various degrees of success. Early in the war, Iran used the Scorpions's "accurate fire" to hold back the Iraqi 2nd Infantry Division's offensive towards the city of Ilam.
However, the Scorpions proved less effective when faced with Iraq's 9th Armoured Division:
A second column rushed to Susangerd, which it crossed without encountering any resistance, the city having apparently been left defenseless. The column continued in the direction of Hamidiyeh. It came into contact with the 92nd Armored Division's reconnaissance regiment, which met it with effective in-depth defense. Yet the Iranians eventually had to yield in the face of Iraqi pressure. Their Scorpions' 90 mm guns did not hold their weight against the T-62 tanks' 115 mm guns. The Iraqis thus took control of Hamidiyeh, then Bozorg.
The British government provided Iran with limited parts for their Scorpions during the war:
Regarding military matters, the British government imposed two strict rules: contracts signed before the war would be honored, but the sale of equipment likely to significantly increase either side's military capacities was banned. Interpreting these regulations loosely, the British government delivered both the Iranians and the Iraqis motors and spare parts for Chieftain and Scorpion tanks, which would allow the former to maintain tanks acquired under the Shah and the latter to repair tanks captured from the Iranian army.
Variants
- TV15000: Prototype of the Scorpion with dummy turret.
- Scorpion 90: The Scorpion 90 or Scorpion 2 was a version armed with the long-barrelled Cockerill Mk3 M-A1 90mm gun designed for the export market.
- Sabre: The Scorpion has been withdrawn from British Army service and the refurbished hulls have been mated with surplus turrets from the FV 721 Fox CVR wheeled reconnaissance vehicle to form a composite vehicle—the Sabre reconnaissance vehicle.
- Salamander: A small number of converted Scorpions are in use at British Army Training Unit Suffield in Canada as part of OPFOR. With the main armament barrel replaced with a dummy they represent 125mm gun armed T-80-type vehicles.
- M113A1 MRV
Experiments in which existing M113 APCs were fitted with Saladin turrets, wielding a 76 mm M1 gun, were successful. The vehicle entered service as the M113A1 FSV.
A very similar, subsequent vehicle, attaching the turret from the Scorpion to the M113, was also known as the FSV. Entering service in 1976, it was later redesignated the M113A1 Medium Reconnaissance Vehicle. Its development also obviated interest in acquiring brand new, purpose-built vehicles. All of these vehicles were retired in 1996.
- AVGP Cougar
The Cougar was used for training in Canada, as a reconnaissance vehicle, and as fire support for those units not equipped with the Leopard MBT. The AVGP family was retired from service starting in 2005. 44 Cougars were subsequently bought and refurbished by Uruguay for use in African peacekeeping missions, however these had their turrets removed to convert them into APCs.