French Ministry of Defence confirms delivery of first 20 EBRC Jaguars

A Jaguar EBRC fitted with statistical armour. (Armée de Terre)

The French Ministère des Armées (Ministry of Defence) has confirmed that the Army's 1st RCA (1er Régiment de chasseurs d'Afrique) will take delivery of the first 20 Jaguar Engin Blindé de Reconnaissance et de Combat (EBRC, Combat and Reconnaissance Vehicle) by the end of January. The vehicles are understood to have been handed over to the Direction Générale de l'Armement (DGA), France's defence procurement agency, late last year. The 1st RCA, based at the Canjuers camp in the south of France, has been designated as the army's sole unit responsible for taking delivery of the Jaguar EBRC, as well as the Griffon VBMR (Véhicule Blindé Multi-Rôles, Multi-purpose Armoured Vehicle), both of which are being acquired under the SCORPION modernisation programme.

As well as taking delivery of the vehicles, the regiment will conduct the initial training of the regimental instructors, organise annual training and refresher courses, and ensure the hand-off of vehicles to their assigned regiments. According to a French Ministry of Defence press release, the 1st RCA's “prime-instructors” received their initial training course at Nexter's site in Roanne in October and November 2021, followed by live fire exercises conducted on the 12 and 13 of January 2022. The regiment is now focussed on finalising the training curriculum that will be used to convert all of the French Army's light cavalry regiments to the Jaguar. The initial regiment planned to complete its conversion to the Jaguar is the 1st REC (Régiment étranger de Cavalerie), with the army aiming to have its first Jaguar-equipped combined arms brigade operational by 2023.