The future armored vehicles family under development for the French Army is a central element of BOA – the French Army Transformation program. Fielding of the entire family of wheeled and tracked vehicles is planned for 2025. Emphasis of the EBRC family is on wheeled platforms, which is considered more suitable for high mobility and operations in urban terrain. The vehicles will be equipped as direct and indirect effectors (the new buzzword for “weapons platforms”) and will combine cannons of various calibers, (including the 40mm Case Telescopic gun) mortars and missile systems.
EBRC will utilize hybrid-electric propulsion combining both diesel and electrical propulsion. Other features considered for the new vehicles include the application of mission-specific protection kits (special kits could be tailored for Low Intensity Conflicts (LIC), new weapons (high intensity laser, microwave weapons etc), urban combat (IED, snipers, RPG sent), and even law enforcement & peacekeeping scenarios etc (countering fire bombs, stones etc.) An integral application of stealth will be provided via multi-spectral camouflage, active protection system and countermeasures, integration of battle-management information applications assisted by decision support systems, which will relieve commanders from the workload generated by multiple sensors and information feeds generated in the networked battlespace.
