In Development: EBRC Jaguar

Commanders!

Today we’d like to tell you more about a vehicle you’ve been asking about for quite some time now – the French EBRC Jaguar recon AFV.

As usual, a bit of history first.

Ever since the Second World War, France has built its armored vehicles light and fast. The AMX-30 Main Battle Tanks had the same roots as the German Leopard 1, both highly mobile at the expense of protection. Another example is the French AMX-13, one of the most common and successful post-war light tanks in the world.

This approach naturally influenced the wheeled vehicle development as well, with excellent vehicles like the ERC 90 Sagaie or AMX 10 RC being produced over the last four decades. It is therefore only natural that the French military is keen on continuing the tradition of highly mobile armored forces. On the other hand, the age of the abovementioned vehicles is starting to show, which is why a new program was initiated back in 2014 to replace them with modern designs. This program is called Scorpion.

The Scorpion program is based on the French Ministry of Defense’s plan to create a new family of highly mobile light vehicles, capable of rapid response and deployment to various parts of the world, and of participating in both low and high intensity conflicts. This family is intended to not only consist of armored personnel carriers, but also of fire support vehicles, capable of dealing even with advanced enemy armor.

The lead development group of the program is GME (Groupement Momentané d'Entreprises), which consists of three major French companies: Nexter, Renault Trucks Defense (RTD) and Thales. Nexter and RTD are responsible for the chassis and weapons systems while Thales is developing electronics, sensors and communications.

There are two main vehicle groups in the program:

• EBRC (Engin Blindé de Reconnaissance et de Combat), a wheeled recon and fire support vehicle
• VBMR (Véhicule Blindé Multi-Role), a wheeled multi-purpose vehicle

The EBRC part is represented by the Jaguar. The other competitor in the program – the SPHINX by Panhard (also a Tier 10 AFV in Armored Warfare) – lost the contest in Jaguar’s favor and remained a prototype only.

Much like the SPHINX, the Jaguar is a 6x6 armored fighting vehicle that carries a crew of three (commander, gunner and driver). It weighs 25 tons and is powered by the Renault DXi 7 490hp diesel engine (20 hp/t power-to-weight ratio). Its range with internal fuel tanks is 800 kilometers and its maximum speed between 90 and 110 km/h (sources vary). It’s worth noting that the rear axle can be used for steering as well, significantly decreasing the vehicle’s turning radius. The suspension height is adjustable.

The Jaguar’s armament consists of one 40mm CTC automatic cannon (together with its feed and FCS forming the Cased Telescoped Armament System) and MMP guided missiles in an advanced CTAS turret.

The gun is compact but powerful, capable of dealing with even the most modern IFVs. Its APFSDS tungsten core rounds can penetrate 140mm of RHAe at 1500 meters, for example. Should that not be suffice, the Jaguar’s MMP tandem warhead missiles can penetrate up to 1000mm of RHAe and have a range of 4000 meters. They are “fire and forget” missiles as they have a self-guidance capability (the target only needs to be locked before launch instead of being targeted all the way throughout the missile’s flight).

The Jaguar’s gun depression and elevation values are -10/+45 degrees and thanks to an advanced stabilization system, the vehicle can engage targets on the move even in difficult terrain. The gun’s rate of fire is 200 rounds per minute. The gun is aimed using the PASEO optics system (PASEO-C for the commander and PASEO-T for the gunner) along with the LST 11 backup sights.

Its armor is STANAG 4569 Level 4, which means frontal protection against 14.5mm AP bullets and 155 HE shell fragments at 30 meters. It’s worth noting that the frontal wheels are not covered by ballistic shields, sacrificing protection for increased off-road capabilities, an important factor for any deployment in third world countries. The bottom of the vehicle is protected against explosions equal to 10 kilograms of TNT. However, the armor can be upgraded by the addition of a cage armor set, an effective measure against the ubiquitous RPG-7.

One of the most important features of the Jaguar is its ability to interact with the French Army’s next-gen C4ISTAR command and control systems, allowing commanders to have unprecedented battlefield overview thanks to the cutting edge technology involved. The production model also features the Antares soft-kill APS and a Pilar V acoustic sensor to determine where the incoming fire is coming from.

The initial framework plan was to have some 300 vehicles of this type operational by 2030 and as far as we could find, this plan is still valid. The orders were, however, divided into multiple smaller batches.

In the September of 2020, the French Army ordered the first 42 EBRC Jaguars. The first vehicles were apparently delivered between January and February of 2022 to a unit called 1er Régiment de Chasseurs d’Afrique (a cavalry unit of the French Army) for training, although the unit to reach the operational status with the Jaguar is the 1er Régiment Étranger de Cavalerie (1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment) of the Foreign Legion – it should happen next year, in 2023. This unit received their first Jaguars in the August of 2022.

Following the success of the initial trials, the ordered amount was increased in May 2022 to 150 vehicles (to be delivered by 2025). And that’s pretty much the state of things right now – the Jaguars are expected to appear in service next year but some of them are already pretty much operational.

In Armored Warfare, the EBRC Jaguar will be a Tier 10 Premium Armored Fighting Vehicle and a special reward of the future Eclipse Battle Path.

No, not the main reward – that honor belongs to another vehicle. But it goes like this. Initially, we were thinking of releasing the vehicle in the form of Loot Crates as usual. However, after reading the article about the future of Armored Warfare storytelling, you’ve voiced your opinion that it really should be a Battle Path vehicle instead, since:

• It’s already mentioned in the lore
• It’s a more fair way of distributing it

Furthermore (which is something you do not know yet, but you will), it fits the vehicle theme of the next Battle Path that we are not ready to disclose yet, although we’ll get there soon.

After carefully reviewing your feedback and running the numbers – we agree. Therefore:

• The Eclipse Battle Path will feature 5 vehicles, not 4 (two of them Tier 10s)
• The Jaguar will be featured as an additional “overprogression” prize that will be more difficult (but not impossible) to obtain than the “main” prize by simply playing

The details will be disclosed in the future so let’s get to the vehicle’s statistics and abilities.

Long story short, the EBRC will be a Premium version of the Sphinx, which is something that’s been missing from the game until now (save for the rather obscure and Monster version of Sphinx from a long time ago). It will feature:

• Same armor (except for Sphinx’s partial cage, which is not present here)
• More or less the same firepower with additional focus on the cannon instead of missiles
• Somewhat worse traverse rate and acceleration
• Same camouflage and viewrange measures

Armor-wise, we opted not to introduce the cage armor as it makes the vehicle look a bit weird, it isn’t very effective in the game anyway and led to some collision model issues during testing. The vehicle will, however, feature soft-kill APS and 360 degree smoke cover.

The firepower will be somewhat improved. The missiles are pretty much the same but the launcher doesn’t depress or elevate all that much (just like on the real Jaguar) and it has a single launching point with two tubes instead of one tube on each side of the turret. The autocannon will feature PELE ammunition (slightly better than Namer’s) in addition to the APFSDS round but the HE round was removed. The gun will also offer improved gun elevation (-10/+75 degrees).

The reduced mobility values (acceleration, hull traverse) might seem like a nerf but they really are not. They will make the vehicle easier to control and to use in battle as the Sphinx tends to steer a bit too fast at some points. As for the additional modules, the Recon Package will be there, as will be the IR Masking System improving the vehicle’s camouflage.

We hope that you’ll enjoy the Jaguar and, as always:

See you on the battlefield!