Nexter to complete delivery of all 15 Aravis to the DGA in 2010

03:14 GMT, February 8, 2010 defpro.com | As the French Ministry of Defence recently announced, the country’s Armament Procurement Agency (Direction générale de l'armement, DGA) delivered the first four of 15 Aravis multi-mission armoured vehicles to the French Army in late January. The DGA ordered the vehicles, built by French manufacturer Nexter Systems, for some €20 million ($28 million) on 16 April 2009 and received the first four later that year. Delivery of the remaining eleven vehicles is expected to be completed by late April 2010.

As the ministry explains, this procurement programme will provide the Army with a well-protected vehicle for reconnaissance and patrol missions in dangerous environments, including from threats such as improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The vehicles will be transferred to the Army’s engineer corps, which will operate them in Afghanistan alongside the Buffalo mine-protected vehicles and the Souvim mine cleaning systems and will further improve the French Army’s capability to effectively protect its soldiers against IEDs.

Nexter Systems, which is part of the Nexter Group (created in 2006 and fully owned by Giat Industries), displayed the Aravis for the public for the first time at the 2008 edition of the Eurosatory defence trade fair. The Aravis is a 4x4 armoured infantry mobility vehicle based upon the Mercedes-Benz U-5000 Unimog chassis which provides high performance in difficult terrains such as in Afghanistan. It has a modular design allowing for the rapid change of the vehicle’s configuration to an ambulance or command post. However, the 15 ordered vehicles will each include the armoured personnel carrier configuration to be manned by a crew of two soldiers, a commander and driver, and can transport up to six soldiers with their combat gear.

Weighing 12.5 tons (comparable to the German Dingo 2 of Krauss-Maffei Wegmann) and with a cabin volume of 9.5m³, the vehicle can be easily transported by current and future transport aircraft such as the C-130 and the A400M. The Aravis also features power steering, run flat tyres and a central tyre pressure regulation system. Powered by a Mercedes-Benz 218hp diesel engine coupled to an automatic transmission, it reaches maximum speeds of 100km/h and offers an operating range of approximately 750 kilometres.

The SAFEPRO Nexter Systems armour kit provides a STANAG 4569 Level 4 ballistic protection against machine gun fire, mines and IEDs. The company claims the vehicle can repel up to 14.5mm ammunition as well as mines with up to 10kg of explosives near the cabin or under the wheels. According to an earlier report by Jane’s, the explosion of 50kg of TNT at a distance of 5 metres during trials in France did not cause the vehicle’s doors to malfunction.

The Aravis is equipped with a remote-controlled weapons station, fitted with a 12.7mm machine gun which is also mounted on the VAB TOP (Véhicule de l'Avant Blindé) armoured personnel carriers deployed to Afghanistan with the French Army since early 2009. Furthermore, in order to support its reconnaissance and patrol missions, the Aravis features cameras on the weapons station as well as seven periphery cameras to observe the proximity of the vehicle and provide 360 degree situational awareness from within the protected cabin.

Now that the French Army received its first Aravis, drivers and maintenance crews will begin training on the new vehicle this month. However, the French Defence Ministry did not specify when the first vehicles would be deployed in Afghanistan. The additional protection that the vehicle provides is urgently required, as older vehicles in service do not sufficiently protect soldiers from the increasing threat of IEDs and high power kinetic projectiles in Afghanistan.


----
By Nicolas von Kospoth, Managing Editor