France orders 530 Serval vehicles

The French Ministry of Defence has ordered 530 Serval 4×4 armoured vehicles for delivery between 2025 and 2031, according to an 8th February post from the country’s Minister of Defence, Sébastien Lecornu, on X.com.

Forces Operations, a French defence news outlet, appears to have reported this contract earlier in January. However, Lecornu’s post provides official confirmation of the order. 

The vehicles will be produced by Texelis and KNDS France and the order is valued at more than a billion Euros, Lecornu said. A February 2022 article posted on the French MoD’s website states that 2,038 Servals will be procured across two programmes: SCORPION, which is the primary modernisation programme of the French land forces, and the Protected Multipurpose Light Tactical Vehicle program with 978 and 1,060 vehicles respectively. Delivery for all of them is expected by 2035. 

The vehicles are designed to equip France’s light brigades and other units during deployed operations and is the lightest of the vehicles being bought under SCORPION. It will be available in four primary configurations; patrol, intelligence and reconnaissance, communication relay and electronic warfare. This year will also see air defence variants being developed, including counter-drone and short range air defence variants as France works to respond to changes in the threat landscape; in particular there is the question of small drones, which are a challenge in most ongoing conflicts, and the other is adversary helicopters and other systems, which can inflict heavy losses on armoured formations. 

The other vehicles being bought under SCORPION include the Griffon, a 6×6 armoured personnel carrier and the 6×6 Jaguar armoured reconnaissance vehicle. 

France will have a primarily wheeled vehicle fleet, with only its main battle tank operating a tracked running gear. This speaks to how the French Army prefers to fight, with an approach that tends to result in operational deployments over long distances where deployed troops must be as self-sufficient as possible. 

Lecornu also indicated on 6th February that France’s defence budget had been approved including €3.3 billion uplift for 2025 that will see the delivery of 308 SCORPION vehicles – which could include a mix of all three platforms mentioned above, 14 Rafale aircraft, Aster missiles, and place the first orders for a new aircraft carrier as well as renewing and modernising the country’s nuclear deterrent. 

Tech profile: Serval

Serval is to provide France’s light brigades with a protected mobility platform, as well as equip support troops in the SCORPION formations. Credit: French Army

The Serval was designed for the requirement known as Véhicule Blindé Multi-Rôle Léger (VBMR-L) Serval (English: Lightweight Multirole Armoured Vehicle Serval). It is a 6.7 m long vehicle with a top speed of 90 km/h and an operational range up to 600 km. It can carry ten personnel including a crew of two and provides good blast and ballistic protection at its max weight of 17 tonnes. The key element to Serval, and all of the SCORPION vehicles, is the new Système d’information du combat Scorpion – SIC, a command and control system connecting all of the weapons in the SCORPION network. 

The SIC is eventually expected to enable the French Army to pass targets directly to artillery and air support units, speeding up the process of bringing additional fire support onto a target. This can be a complicated process with conventional force structures and procedures, as well as leading to mistakes and soldiers in contact may struggle to accurately provide the ten-figure grid references that are typically required. Systems like the SIC are designed to automate this process, and make it as straightforward for troops in contact as possible. 

Calibre comment

France’s SCORPION modernisation is a powerful example of a procurement programme that has received a determined focus on delivery. It appears to have succeeded in part through a focus on relatively simple requirements with shared development between the three new vehicles as well as multi-year commitments from the outset from the French government.

By Sam Cranny-Evans, published on 10th February 2025.