The Renault VBC-90 (''Véhicule Blindé de Combat'', or "Armoured Combat Vehicle") is a six-wheeled French
armoured car carrying a 90mm high-velocity gun mated to a sophisticated
fire control computer
A fire-control system (FCS) is a number of components working together, usually a gun data computer, a Director (military), director, and radar, which is designed to assist a ranged weapon system to target, track, and hit a target. It performs ...
and
ranging system. It was developed primarily for internal security or armed reconnaissance purposes. Modeled after Renault's
Véhicule de l'Avant Blindé
The Véhicule de l'Avant Blindé or VAB (literally meaning "Armoured Forward Vehicle"; but more appropriately translated: "Armoured Vanguard Vehicle") is a French armoured personnel carrier and support vehicle designed and manufactured by Renault ...
(VAB) armoured personnel carrier, the VBC-90 was engineered in concert with
Saviem
The Société Anonyme de Véhicules Industriels et d'Équipements Mécaniques (), commonly known by the acronym Saviem (), was a French manufacturer of trucks and buses/coaches part of the Renault group, headquartered in Suresnes, Île-de-France ...
and
Creusot-Loire
Creusot-Loire was a French engineering conglomerate, formed from factories in Le Creusot and Châteauneuf, Loire. The Creusot-Loire subsidiary of ArcelorMittal also includes an Innovation, Research and Development centre for the group.
History
The ...
.
One was also built in prototype form by
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
under license, where it was known as the ''Vehículos de Apoyo y Exploración''.
[Sánchez Rubio, Rodolfo. ''Carrera armamentista en el Cono Sur de América 1940-1981: teoría y práctica''. Estado Mayor General del Ejercito (Chile) 1985. OCLC 20069482 p 141.] VBC-90s were available with various chassis configurations resembling both the VAB and the
Berliet VXB-170
The Berliet VXB-170 is a four-wheel armoured vehicle used primarily as an internal security vehicle. Developed and initially produced by Berliet until Berliet was merged with Saviem to form Renault Trucks (now Arquus), it lost to the Saviem VA ...
.
Development History
The VBC-90 was developed by Renault and Saviem as a specialized reconnaissance and fire support variant of the ''Véhicule de l'Avant Blindé''.
It had a very wide turret ring and was manufactured specifically to carry a large-calibre gun system. At least two prototypes had been completed by 1979 and were initially designated ''VCS-90''.
The first two had boat-shaped hulls and glacis plates reminiscent of the VXB-170 and VAB, respectively. They essentially resembled six-wheeled variants of these vehicles, albeit with larger turret rings.
The third had a more unique hull and a sloping glacis plate. It was this variant which was eventually accepted for production as the VBC-90.
Unlike the VAB, the VBC was not developed to meet a
French Army
The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (french: Armée de Terre, ), is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces. It is responsible to the Government of France, along with the other components of the Armed For ...
requirement and was intended solely for export to French military clients overseas.
[Kolodziej, Edward A. "Making and Marketing Arms: The French Experience and Its Implications for the International System." ''Princeton University Press'', 2014. . pp 274–275.] Nevertheless, from 1981, the French government ordered 28 VBC-90s for a single squadron of the
Mobile Gendarmerie
The Mobile Gendarmerie (french: Gendarmerie mobile) (GM) is a subdivision of the French National Gendarmerie whose main mission is to maintain public order (from crowd control to riot control) and general security. Contrary to the Departmental G ...
, as a replacement for the ageing
AMX-13
The AMX-13 is a French light tank produced from 1952 to 1987. It served with the French Army, as the Char 13t-75 Modèle 51, and was exported to more than 26 other nations. Named after its initial weight of 13 tonnes, and featuring a tough and re ...
light tanks. The last one was delivered in 1984. VBCs produced by Renault for the Gendarmerie were designated ''VBC-90G''.
[Senat Avis: Premiere Session Ordinaire de 1986–1987 (Tome V)](_blank)
/ref> Another 6 were delivered to Oman between 1984 and 1985 as part of a much larger shipment of VABs for the Royal Omani Guard.
Oman has since announced it will be phasing out its VBC-90s in favor of the much more heavily armed B1 Centauro
The Centauro is a family of Italian military vehicles originating from a wheeled tank destroyer for light to medium territorial defense and tactical reconnaissance. It was developed by a consortium of manufacturers, the Società Consortile Iveco ...
. The French gendarmerie relegated its VBCs to reserve storage in the early 2000s.
A simplified VBC-90 variant known as the ''Vehículos de Apoyo y Exploración'' (VAPE) was developed for Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
by Renault. It was trialled alongside a much heavier model of the ERC 90 Sagaie
The Panhard ERC (''Engin à Roues, Canon''; "Engine with wheels, cannon") is a French six-wheeled armoured car which is highly mobile and amphibious with an option of being NBC-proof. While various models were tested, only two versions of the E ...
offered by Panhard, but neither of the two were adopted by the Argentine Army.
In 2014, Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...
was lobbying for the purchase of an undisclosed number of VBC-90s. The deal was to be partly financed with military grants from Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
but was frozen in 2016 due to tensions between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia.
Specifications
It has a steel hull armoured to protect against small arms
A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions).
The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes c ...
fire. It has a crew of three, with the driver sitting at the front of the vehicle with three bullet-proof windows provided for the driver. A GIAT TS 90 turret carries the commander and gunner, and carries an armament of a 90 mm cannon with a co-axial 7.62 mm machine gun. 20 rounds of 90 mm ammunition are carried in the turret, with a further 25 rounds in the hull.
It is powered by a six-cylinder diesel engine
The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-call ...
mounted at the rear of the hull, driving a 6x6 drive. The vehicle is not amphibious, unlike the VAB on which it was based.
Operators
![VBC-90 operators](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/VBC-90_operators.png)
Former operators
*
* .
Potential operators
*
Gallery
File:VBC-90 img 2376.jpg
File:VAPE-1.png
File:VAB and VBC-90 in Oman 1981.jpg
References
*Foss, Christopher F. ''Jane's Armour and Artillery 1987–88''. London: Jane's Yearbooks, 1987. .
*Foss, Christopher F. ''Jane's Tanks and Combat Vehicles Recognition Guide''. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 2002. .
External links
Presentation
(French)
{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017
Armoured cars of France
Fire support vehicles
Internal security vehicles
Wheeled armoured fighting vehicles
Wheeled reconnaissance vehicles
Six-wheeled vehicles
Reconnaissance vehicles of the Cold War
Military vehicles introduced in the 1980s