France receives last batch of VT4 vehicles

The DGA received the last batch of 10 VT4 4×4 Standard 2 tactical vehicles on 26 July. (SIMMT)

The Directorate General of Armaments (Direction générale de l'armement: DGA), the French armaments procurement agency, announced on its website on 27 July that it received its last batch of 10 VT4 4×4 Standard 2 tactical vehicles the day before.

This brings the total number of VT4 vehicles delivered to the three armed services, the Operational Energy Service (Service de l'Énergie Opérationnelle), and the Joint Munitions Service (Service Interarmées de Munitions) to 4,380, as foreseen by France's Military Programming Law (Loi de Programmation Militaire: LPM) 2019–25 under the Multirole Light Tactical Vehicle (Véhicule Léger Tactique Polyvalent: VLTP) programme.

The 3.5 tonne VT4 can carry four personnel equipped with FÉLIN (Fantassin à Équipement et Liaisons Intégrés) soldier systems or five without it. The unarmoured vehicle is designed to rapidly deploy soldiers in all types of terrain on national territory for urgent interventions under the Operation ‘Sentinelle' internal security mission and overseas operations.

The first tranche of 500 VT4 vehicles is in the Standard 1 configuration, with 250 modifications of a civilian Ford vehicle to improve its mobility and ergonomics. Delivery of tranche 2's 1,200 VT4s with 350 further modifications began in 2019 under a contract awarded to its manufacturer, Arquus, on 7 September 2018. The DGA said Standard 2 offers numerous new functionalities, notably the integration of communication and information systems and air transportability. The agency added that the vehicle features improved all-terrain mobility, weapon mounts, and removable window protection.

The VT4 was produced by Arquus at its plant in Saint-Nazaire.