The British Army has played a major part in the fighting on the French Arm and its cutting edge fighting vehicles have become a familiar scene to news media consumers all over Human Space. However, not all British vehicles are as cutting edge as the Montgomery, Craufurd and Templer, many units still make do with Rifleman APCs or Cavalier hovertanks, and in the nether reaches of the Territorial forces they can be older still. Significant numbers of TAVR and Alician Defence Force-Ground Wing GS Infantry battalions are still equipped with vehicles based on the Fusilier Hover Fighting Vehicle, effectively two full generations behind the state of the art, and the situation is not likely to change soon. If the Kafers had pushed all the way to Earth then a new generation of Territorial soldier would have had to go to war in vehicles built when their grandparents were serving.

Index

FV735 Fusilier Hover Infantry Fighting Vehicle
FV736 Musketeer Hover Fire Support Vehicle
FV737 Carabinier Hover Recce Vehicle
FV738 Archer Hover Air Defence Vehicle
Weapons
Shaftoe Translated
Acknowledgments

The Fusilier HIFV superseded the Halberdier HAPC in British Army service, but that was nearly five decades ago now. The Fusilier was a major step forward over the old Halberdier in having the power-to-weight ratio to support a respectable armament and armour suite, although jump-jet capability was still a generation in the future. The armament suite of the Fusilier slipped behind the cutting edge a long time ago, but the L632 and L74 are still reliable and if the Blackjack is heavier and less accurate than the Green Hunter it does have a significantly bigger warhead. Fusiliers remain the standard Section and Platoon Commanders vehicle for significant parts of the Regional Divisions and the conversion and refurbishment programme that turns Fusiliers into Riflemen is unlikely to be completed in the foreseeable future.

Type: Hover IFV

Nationality: British

In Service With: UK, others

Crew: 3 (Driver, Commander, Gunner) + 8 dismounts

Combat Weight: 18 tons

Armour: Rear: 10, Plenum: 5, Others: 20

Armament:

Signature: 3

Evasion: 7

Sensor Range:

Cargo: 1000kg + 8 Passengers

Max Speed: 160kph

Cruise Speed: 120kph

Combat Movement: 240m

Off Road Mobility: full

Power Plant: 0.75MW MHD Turbine

Fuel Capacity: 575kg of hydrogen

Fuel Consumption: 25kg per hour

Endurance: 23 hours

INDEX

The Fire Support Variant of the Fusilier, the Musketeer replaced the 25mm L632 of the Section Carrier with a 51mm heavy autocannon with a considerable anti-vehicle capability. Ammo stowage for the gun meant the passenger-carrying ability of the Musketeer dropped to 6 men. BEx originally hoped that the British Army would adopt the Musketeer as the Platoon Commander’s vehicle within the Fusilier family, but the Army settled on a Fusilier with minimal Command and Control upgrades instead. British Army sales were instead limited to equipping Close Recce squadrons of some UKDF Yeomanry units. Musketeers in the Close Recce role have now largely been superseded by Cavaliers and in a few cases Craufurds. The surplus vehicles have been filtered down to the Support Companies of Fusilier equipped Regional Force GS battalions where they provide a useful increase in combat potential for the AT Platoons, and the few remaining in Yeomanry units will soon follow.

On the export market the Musketeer was considerably more successful, though mostly it has seen service as a substitute hover tank for nations unable to field first line vehicles.

Type: Hover IFV

Nationality: British

In Service With: UK, others

Crew: 3 (Driver, Commander, Gunner) + 6 dismounts

Combat Weight: 20 tons

Armour: Rear: 10, Plenum: 5, Others: 20

Armament:

Signature: 3

Evasion: 7

Sensor Range: 10km (+1)

Cargo: 1000kg + 6 Passengers

Max Speed: 160kph

Cruise Speed: 120kph

Combat Movement: 240m

Off Road Mobility: full

Power Plant: 0.8MW MHD Turbine

Fuel Capacity: 575kg of hydrogen

Fuel Consumption: 27.5kg per hour

Endurance: 21 hours

Price: Lv250,000 for a second hand system on the open market

(Original 2265 purchase price was approximately Lv600,000)

INDEX

The Carabinier was meant to be the Recce counterpart to the Fusilier, mounting a considerably enhanced sensor suite on an extensible mast and replacing the standard turret with a four-tube AVM pod. British sales in the standard configuration were limited to equipping the Medium Recce Squadrons of Yeomanry Regiments of UKDF, HBTs being preferred for medium recce in the deployment forces, while a version of Carabinier without the sensor mast was procured for the Anti-Tank platoons of Fusilier equipped battalions.

Within the British Army, Carabiniers have now been replaced in the Medium Recce role by Cavalier HBTs. AT role Carabiniers linger on in the GS Infantry battalions of the Regional Divisions and are unlikely to be replaced in the near future. They are now being joined by recce variant Carabiniers flowing down into the Infantry from the re-equipped Yeomanry.

Type: Hover Recce Vehicle

Nationality: British

In Service With: UK, others

Crew: 3 (Driver, Commander, Gunner)

Combat Weight: 18 tons

Armour: Rear: 10, Plenum: 5, Others: 20

Armament:

Signature:

Evasion: 7

Sensor Range:

Cargo: Recce Variant: None, AT Variant: 500Kg

Max Speed: 160kph

Cruise Speed: 120kph

Combat Movement: 240m

Off Road Mobility: full

Power Plant: 0.75MW MHD Turbine

Fuel Capacity: 575kg of hydrogen

Fuel Consumption: 25kg per hour

Endurance: 23 hours

Price:

INDEX

The Archer was intended to provide British units with a hover-mounted medium air-defence system. The turret of the Fusilier was replaced with a remote weapon mount for a 12mm HMG and the troop bay is replaced by a vertical launch system holding 10 Goshawk medium range SAMs. Initial plans had called for the Archer to serve in all armour and non-light role infantry battalions, but a spending squeeze meant that it never served in any armour regiment and only first line infantry battalions in the deployment forces were ever fully equipped. A Vickers proposal to rework the Archer with the full mobility upgrade being applied to produce the Rifleman from the Fusilier was considered but not adopted and the only significant upgrade of the Archer since entry into service has been the replacement of the remote weapon station with a Vedette Defender point defence installation. British Army Archers have now mostly been transferred down to the Regional Divisions, grouped as independent Air Defence Batteries within the Divisional Artillery Groups.

Type: Hover Air Defence Vehicle

Nationality: British

In Service With: UK, others

Crew: 3 (Driver, Commander, Gunner)

Combat Weight: 18.5 tons

Armour: Rear: 10, Plenum: 5, Others: 20

Armament:

Signature: 3

Evasion: 7

Sensor Range: 25km (+2)

Cargo: None

Max Speed: 160kph

Cruise Speed: 120kph

Combat Movement: 240m

Off Road Mobility: full

Power Plant: 0.75MW MHD Turbine

Fuel Capacity: 575kg of hydrogen

Fuel Consumption: 25kg per hour

Endurance: 23 hours

INDEX

The L632 is an old, unsophisticated, but ultimately reliable conventional autocannon (if 25x130mm ETC can be called conventional) that has served the British Army well for half a century and seems set to continue for another decade or more. The weapon is dual feed, being capable of firing either fully automatical from the linkless magazine or hand-loaded single rounds. The standard load-out is APSE in the magazine, with Smoke, HE and Thermobaric rounds carried in small numbers and loaded individually. A 25x130mm SPFF round is available, but the L632 mounted on the Fusilier lacks the necessary muzzle data link to use this round.

A scaled up version of the L632 in 51x325mm ETC, the L635 has a considerably better anti-armour performance at the cost of a considerably larger shell. Somewhat more complex than the L632, the L635 has twin autoloading feeds in addition to the manual feed. The designer’s intention was that one feed should be dedicated to SPFF rounds for point-defence, but practice has shown that the use of a vehicle’s main gun for the point-defence role is inherently limiting. In actual practice British Army Musketeers will generally load one ammunition magazine with APSE, the other with a mix of Thermobaric, HE and WP-SMK. Variants of the L635 have been adopted for the naval multi-purpose medium caliber gun role and the gun has also been used by other manufacturers as the armament for medium AFVs and, using the SPFF round, for close air defence systems.

Vickers’ license built version of the Mini-12 machine gun, the L72 is the British Army's current Heavy Machine Gun. The L72A4 version is used in Infantry battalions for direct fire support, while the L72A3 is the actively cooled variant mounted in various armoured vehicles.

The predecessor to the L95 in British Army service, the L74 served admirably for many years. In general there is little to choose between the two weapons, but the actively cooled version of the L95 is more reliable than the L74A8 in sustained fire. Standard issue for L74A8 equipped vehicles includes a stock, trigger mechanism and bipod to allow the L74 to be removed from the vehicle in the event it is disabled (which technically converts it into the L74A7 infantry version).

The Verlet Defender PDS combines a heavy 7.5mm round with a integral Thermal and Millimetre Wavelength Radar seeker unit. The system provides excellent point defence against conventional ATGW and low-V cannon rounds, but is less effective against Hyper Velocity Missiles and high-V rounds. This unit is also highly effective against infantry.

The ground-launched variant of the Sparrowhawk SRAAM in front-line service with the RAF until the time of the CAW, the Goshawk combines a minimally altered Sparrowhawk airframe with two wrap-around boosters designed to get the missile out of its VLS cell and up to Mach 1, at which point they peel away in similar fashion to a sabot, leaving the Goshawk to engage the target in identical fashion to its Sparrowhawk cousin. In operational service the Goshawk is now semi-obsolescent and was always limited by the two-stage boosted flight, which restricts the missile to a minimum engagement range of 2.5Km. The intention was that the Goshawk should be replaced by the Sky Streak, but that missile was recast as a shorter-range anti-armour weapon and the Goshawk replacement remains open. Fortunately the Kafer air threat has not proven to be serious to date.

The Blackjack was the UK’s standard AVM before the advent of Green Hunter and Sky Streak. The missile comes in at the heavier end of the man-portable spectrum and vehicle mounting was always preferred. Light role infantry AT Platoon members were universally relieved when the Blackjack was superceded in first line units by the much lighter Green Hunter. Nevertheless, Blackjack remains in service in considerable parts of the army and its larger warhead still finds advocates amongst those who have yet to be converted to the church of the Green Hunter.

Most Blackjack equipped units primarily use vehicular mounts, whether they be tube-launchers on Fusiliers or Carabiniers, or simple pintle mounts on Hover Rovers or Reynards. However all dedicated AT vehicles are normally equipped with a separate control head for dismounted use, which can be combined with a Blackjack launch tube on the heavy L2 tripod. The control head is TISS compatible in a basic fashion and can be controlled from up to 125m away, although a cable connection to a TISS node is required.

INDEX

INDEX

The Fusilier concept is by Dan Hebditch, the Vedette Defender and L72 are by Dan Hebditch and Bryn Monnery

INDEX

30/04/06

Copyright 2006, David Gillon