Alvis Sabre

The Story of Alves Saber

The Alvis FV107 Scimitar light tank proved to be a fairly successful light armoured reconnaissance vehicle, with the British Army stockpiling around 325 of them and producing hundreds for export to Belgium, Honduras and other places in Jordan. Taking the Alvis "Fox" armored car and the Alvis "Scorpion" light tank as examples, it was decided to combine two key components of each vehicle to produce a scimitar-like, budget-conscious alternative to the Alvis "Sabre" Scout light tank .

Saber is a relatively simple combination of Fox armored car turret and Scorpion hull to create a new vehicle. Retaining its reconnaissance classification, the Sabre is armed with a 30mm L21 RARDEN automatic cannon mounted in a 360-degree rotating turret structure aft of the Scorpion's tracked hull.

The three-man crew consisted of the driver sitting in the front left of the hull and the commander and gunner in the turret. The engine is mounted at the front of the vehicle, and the landing gear remains largely faithful to the Scorpion's design: five twin-tire wheels on each side of the fuselage, with front drive sprockets and rear idlers. Off-road travel is aided by a torsion-bar suspension, and road speeds hit 50 mph. The 7.62mm General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG) was used as a coaxial anti-infantry weapon.

The vehicle carries 160 x 30 mm AP (Armor Piercing) and HE (High Explosive) projectiles. 3,000 x 7.62mm ammunition was carried.

Introduced in 1995, the

Sabre proved in practice the vehicle was successful enough for service requiring a fast, lightly armored reconnaissance platform. Operations in active theaters revealed some inherent limitations of the original product, which have been addressed over time: the installation of 2 x 4 smoke grenade launcher groups on either side of the main guns helped improve crew survivability, to enable the vehicle to provide its own smoke screen.

The original belt-driven 7.62mm GPMG armature was replaced by a more efficient 7.62mm L94A1 chain gun system with improved reloading.

The Sabre was phased out of frontline service with the British Army in 2004. Combat operations ranged from the Gulf War area to the Yugoslav War of the 1990s.

Specification

Basic

Roles

Dimensions

Performance

Performance

Armor

160 x 30mm projectile.

3,000 x 7.62mm ammo.

8 x Smoke Grenade.

Changes