Arquus (formerly Renault Trucks Defense) in April delivered the first of 1,200 VT4 4×4 light tactical vehicles in Standard 2 configuration to French armed forces. The VT4 contract, officially known as VLTP-NP (Véhicules Légers Tactiques Polyvalents Non Protégés), was awarded to then-Renault Trucks Defense in December 2016.
The first prototype VT4s in Standard 1 configuration were delivered for testing in September 2017. The first four production examples were delivered to the French Army’s 8th Matériel Regiment (8e Régiment du Matériel) at the beginning of October 2018, with the last of the 500 Standard 1 VT4s ordered delivered in December.
Arquus is producing about 5 Standard 2 VT4s per day, and this year hopes to deliver about 800 of the 1,200 vehicles that were ordered in September 2018.
Under France’s Loi de Programmation Militaire (LPM) 2019–25 military funding programme, the armed forces are scheduled to receive a total of 4,380 VT4s by 2025, and the bulk of these (3,980) are for the army. The VT4 is replacing the Peugeot P4, a localised Mercedes-Benz G-Class delivered from 1983.
The VT4 award includes a Maintenance in Operational Condition (MCO) element for the duration of the contract. A fixed-price support package guarantees 95% technical-operational availability for 14 years throughout France. Modification and support account for 60% of the undisclosed contract value, which is understood to be about EUR787 million (USD891 million).
To bring the base Ford product up to VT4 standard, conversion to Standard 1 involves 250 individual modifications and takes 18 man hours. Conversion to the more complex Standard 2 (shown) involves a further 350 modifications and 40 hours. (Shaun C Connors)
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