Defense electronic systems company Thales said Wednesday that French forces will get a new batch of modern armored vehicles.
According to a press release from Thales, the French defense procurement agency (DGA) has awarded the order for conditional tranche 4 (TC4) of the SCORPION program to Nexter, Arquus and Thales, operating through the Engin Blindé Multi Role (France’s multi-role armoured vehicle program) consortium.
Tranche TC4 corresponds to an additional 88 JAGUAR armoured reconnaissance and fighting vehicles and 302 GRIFFON multirole armoured vehicles. This new order will bring the number of JAGUAR and GRIFFON vehicles ordered to 150 and 909 respectively, in line with the target laid out in France’s 2019–25 Military Programming Law.
This represents half of the French government’s total commitment for JAGUARs and GRIFFONs (excluding the MEPAC variant) to be acquired under the SCORPION program to renew the medium-tonnage segment of the French Army’s armoured vehicle fleet. The TC4 award comes shortly after an order was placed for 54 GRIFFON MEPAC versions, equipped with a 120-mm mortar, with deliveries scheduled from 2024.
These two awards were announced by the French Prime Minister during his visit to Nexter’s Roanne site on 19 February. This latest order underscores France’s continuing confidence in the EBMR consortium partners, ensuring on-time deliveries since the beginning of the program. It provides Nexter, Arquus and Thales, and the entire land defense industrial and technological base in France, with better visibility of their industrial activity through to 2025.