Two LAVs destroyed in one week and five French soldiers killed, another injured … light armored vehicle
French units deployed in the Sahel constitute one of the prime targets of armed terrorist groups. While avoiding direct impact with the tricolor units, the jihadists try to limit the capacity for action and slow down the activity of the force Barkhane but also UN and Sahelian forces. While blindly hitting civilians.
The mine warfare is intensifying but it is not new in the Sahel. Since 2013, a third of the fifty-one French people killed in action in the Sahel have been killed by IEDs, those infamous improvised explosive devices that leave little chance for LAV crews. Witness the deadly attacks in July, September and December 2020 and that of Saturday (during which perished the first French woman killed in action since 1964).
According to Hervé Grandjean, spokesman for the Ministry of the Armed Forces, this is a mode of action that we see more and more
.
“The shortcomings of their advantages”
How to cope? Of course, the resistance capacity of military vehicles depends on the explosive charge of the IED, but countermeasures do exist: jammers, mine-resistant armored vehicles (MRAPs), specialized engineering devices, etc. Despite everything, the risk still exists. Particularly for the lightest vehicles in the fleet of Barkhane which has some 900 vehicles (including 500 armored vehicles, a third being LAVs according to the Army Chief of Staff, General Lecointre).
Are these LAVs, which entered service in the early 1990s, suitable for both the terrain and the threat? They have the flaws of their advantages
, summarizes a user: Handy, fast, agile, discreet but barely protected against small arms fire.
Against an explosive charge? They have little chance.
These aging armored vehicles should be replaced. But according to the 2019-2025 Military Programming Law, the Army will have to be content with 730 LAVs regenerated
(especially in terms of motorization in fact) by 2025. The opex forces will therefore have to wait while waiting for its robust successor, the future Armored vehicle to aid engagement
for which Thales (with its Hawkei already in service with the Australian forces) and Arquus (with the Scarabee) are in competition.
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