France Orders 364 Serval Armored Vehicles for Army

The French Army has placed an order for 364 Serval armored vehicles of which it will receive 108 of them next year.

On Friday, the Direction générale de l'armement (DGA) a contract for the vehicles was finalized on December 23 under SCORPION program following tests. Serval vehicles will complement the Army’s 24-ton Griffons and will replace 40-year-old Véhicule de l'avant blindé (VAB) vehicles.

The light-armored, four-wheel drive, 15-ton Servals are built by Nexter and Texelis. The first 12 production vehicles will be delivered in the first half of 2022, followed by a further 96 in the later half.

The Army is expected to have a total of 978 Servals by 2030. Three main versions of the Serval — patrol; intelligence and reconnaissance; and communications — will each have their own variants. Designed to operate in combat zones, the Serval combines flexibility, strategic mobility and payload-carrying capacity.

Servals, Griffons and Jaguars will be linked via a new communications and battlefield management system, the SCORPION Combat Information System.