By the contract notified in 2018, the temporary business venture comprising Nexter and Texelis has delivered the first SERVALs 4×4 light multi-role armored vehicles (VBMR) to the French Ministry of Armed Forces. 70 vehicles will be delivered by the end of 2022, out of a total of 364 SERVALs ordered to date by the French Defence Procurement Agency (DGA). Developed in record time, the SERVAL 4×4 armored vehicle is one of the four vehicles in the SCORPION program, designed to renew the French Army’s medium-weight armored vehicles. The SERVAL is going to equip the French national emergency echelon as it is made to intervene in contact zones in the initial phases of an operation. It will also be used in light infantry units such as mountain troops and parachute regiments.
The Serval VBMR is a 4×4 multi-role armored vehicle manufactured by French state-owned defense systems integrator Nexter Systems in collaboration with mobility solutions provider Texelis. The SERVAL integrates the common equipment to SCORPION vehicles, in particular the vehicle’s vetronics, a remotely operated turret, threat detectors, as well as the SCORPION Combat Information System (SICS). SICS supports collective combat capabilities by ensuring communication between all the platforms and weapons systems of the Scorpion network. The SICS enables the automatic exchange of data and timely decision-making by the group leaders of the military regiments. The vehicle has a gross weight of 17t and can achieve a maximum range of 600km and a maximum speed of 90km/h.
The Scorpion program is promulgated by the French Defence Ministry for the development of scalable and flexible tactical systems to meet the French Army’s present and future operational needs. It includes three new armored vehicles – Griffon, Jaguar, and Serval. The remaining operational objectives are the upgrade of Leclerc main battle tank, the development of the SICS information system, and the operational readiness system. The SERVAL is an essential complement to the GRIFFON EBMR armored personnel carrier and the JAGUAR EBRC armored reconnaissance and combat vehicle. The Scorpion program will include the procurement of 1,872 Griffon armored vehicles, 300 Jaguar armored vehicles, 978 Serval VBMRs, and 200 modernized Leclerc tanks.
The armored vehicles are expected to replace the 1970s-era VAB armored personnel carriers. Its weight and size enable it to be easily deployed in external theaters of operations since an A400M transport aircraft can carry two SERVALs in combat order. Based on the common base developed by Nexter and Texelis, the SERVAL is available in three main versions (patrol, intelligence and reconnaissance, and communications relay), which are themselves available in a large number of variants. The SERVAL’s highly modular architecture enables it to evolve according to its customers’ needs, offering them different capabilities from a single vehicle, which ensures optimal vehicle availability and maintenance costs for its users.