The French Armor Corps: A Branch in Transition In a Changing Army

by MajorTimothy R. Decker The Armor and Cavalry Branch will experience some of the most profound changes of any element of the French Army, changes that will touch every aspect of its organization, materiel, doctrine, and training. France's new AMX Leclerc MBT When it begins fielding the Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) in 1990-1991, the French Army will start a period of unprecedented force modernization. The decade of the 1990s will bring the same tremendous change to the French Army that the 1980s brought to the U. S. Army. In addition to the MLRS, France will field the Aux-Leclerc main battle tank, the Hades missile, and continue the fielding of the AU F1 155-mm howitzer. A force structure reorganization is currently in process with the e l i i a - tion of one corps headquarters, the creation of the Franco-German brigade, and the transition from six to three military regions within metropolitan France. The Armor and Cavalry Branch will experience some of the most profound changes of any element of HarTqo r L the French Army, changes that will touch every aspect of its organization, materiel, doctrine, and training. The descendants of Ney, Lyautey, and Leclerc are fiercely proud of their heritage and traditions. Horsemanship is considered an integral part of a cavalry officer'straining, and every regiment has its sulk d'liortneiir (room of honor) that traces the unit's history, campaigns, and heroes. Nevertheless, ARMOR - January-February 7997 35

The AMX-30 Series: France's Current MBT the Armor Corps and its leaders are firmly focused on the present ' and the future. It is a branch in transition in a rapidly changing army. With a strength of 27,000 personnel - 2,250 officers, 5,700 NCOs, and 18,500 soldiers - the Armor Corps represents approximately 11 percent of the French Army. Organized around a core of professional officers and NCOs, the branch contains 250 officers, 700 NCOs, and 16,000 soldiers performing their one-year national service as draftees. The 19 tank and 13 light armor regiments are divided among two corps, eight armored divisions, and the Force d'Actioit Rapide ( F A R - Rapid Action Force). (The Armor Corps also counts an airborne reconnaissance regiment, the 1jrellte Reginrent de Dragons Paraclttitistes, among its units. This is a unique, combined arms, strategic asset employed by the First French Army, and it is beyond the scope of this article.) To date, France's main battle tank is still the AMX-30B or -30B2. In service since the late lWs, it is comparable to the U. S. M60A1, particularly in the "B" configuration. It has a 105-mm rifled main gun, coincidence rangefmder, manual transmission, and no passive night vision devices. The "B2," though based on the same hull and turret as the "B," is considerably more modern, having an automated fire control system and a "semiautomatic" transmission. Some AMX-30B2s are equipped with a low-light television camera for limited visibility firing, much like the passive version of the M60A1. A very few AMX-30B2s are equipped with the "Castor" thermal sight; in MX-30B'slow-light TVcamera is on the right side of the turret. French Light Armor: A Preference for Wheeled Vehicles At right, the ERC wheeled armored vehicle, equipped with 90-mm gun. 36 ARMOR -

New Artillery System And a New Light Vehicle For French Forces Recent additions to the French Army include the VBL, above, which meets similar roles and missions as the US. HMMWV, and the AU F1 self-propelled 155mm artillery system, at left. this configuration the tank is somewhat similar to the U. S. M60A3. Light armor vehicles, found in corps reconnaissance regiments, in the armor regiments of motorized infantry divisions, and in the FAR, are the AMX-lORC, the ERC-90 'Saguie, " the VAB-HOT 'antitank missile carrier, and the VBL. The AMX-1ORC has a 105-mm low-pressure cannon, and the ERC- 90 is equipped with a 90-mm gun. Both vehicles fire a multitude of munitions, including an armor-piercing, fin-stabilized, discarding SABOT (APFSDS) round. The four-wheeled

(Velziciile de I'At*arzt Blinde - "Forward Armor Vehicle") is equipped to fire the HOT antitank missile. The HOT'S 4000-meter range and wire guidance system make this vehicle comparable to the U. S.

M901 ITV.

The VBL (Velziarle Leger Blinde - "Light Armor Vehicle") is a fourwheeled, armored, NBC-protected, amphibious vehicle that is replacing the World War 11-era jeeps. Like the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, the VBL has multiple possible configurations; in armored cavalry units it carries the Milan antitank missile system. The AMX-Leclerc Main Battle Tank For a variety of reasons, France did not modernize its main battle tank fleet in the late 1970s and early 1980s, as did the U. S. and Germany. This will change with the introduction of the AMX-Leclerc main battle tank in late 1991. At an estimated cost of 28 million French francs per tank, or approximately 5 million 1990 dollars, it is the most ambitious, costly, conventional modernization effort in the history of the French Army. The first third-generation main battle tank, the Leclerc has significant implications for doctrine, individual and unit training, and force structure. For the French Army, the AMX-Leclerc will have much the same effect that the Block I11 had on the U. S. Army. The AMX-Leclerc will have a 1500- horsepower "hyperbar" engine, an automatic transmission with six forward and two reverse speeds, a 120- mm smoothbore gun, a fully-automated fire control system, a stabilized turret, an automatic loader, a databus, and a battlefield management system. The tank commander's stabilized viewer can rotate 360 degrees and has a day and a passive night channel. The gunner's sight will have a day and a thermal channel for limited visibility firing. The tank commander will be able to acquire targets and hand them over to the gunner at the push of a button to align the gunner's sight with his viewer. The tank commander will also be able to automatically align the main gun at the 6 or 12 o'clock position in relation to the hull. Compared to the U. S. MlAl or the German Leopard 11, the AMX-Leclerc represents several sig-ARMOR - 37 nificant advances. First, it will be the first Western main battle tank to ’ have an automatic loader and a three-man crew. The automatic loader, which can load around every four seconds, permits the tank to engage six targets per minute. Second, the databus system represents a.significant advance in relation to second-generation tanks l i e the Ml/MlAl or the Leopard 11. The Leclerc’s electronic components will be connected to the databus, eliminating the multitude of cables and connections found in the MlMlAl’s turret and hull. Components will exchange data via the databus, thus speeding the transfer of information and improving system reliability. Third, the Leclerc’s battlefield management system will automatically transmit and receive tactical and logistical information via a burst-transmission, frequency-hopping radio., The tank commander will constantly have his tank‘s position and logistical status at his fingertips. By designating a target with the laser rangefinder, he will know its grid coordinates, greatly increasing the accuracy of a call for fire or a spot report. Tanks will transmit information to one another and to higher headquarters, and receive orders via the tank commanders’s monitor screens, thereby simplifying command and control at all levels. The Armor and Cavalry Branch Studies and Experimentations Bureau, located at the Armor and Cavalry School at Saumur, is charged with writing doctrine for the AMX-Leclerc. Because it represents such a drastic departure from its predecessors, many questions will have to be answered after units have gained practical experience with the tank, and doctrine will remain in draft until the mid-to-late 1990s. The bureau is scrutinizing how to capitalize on the tank‘s shoot-on-the-move and night vision capabilities, for it feels that these characteristics will revolutionize armor employment when combined with the Systeiiie Bfonnatiqie Regiiiientaire command and control system (SIR-Regimental Automated System.) Pronounced “ser,” this system is similar in concept to the U. S. Battlefield Management System. The SIR will have a variety of capabilities that will aid the commander and his staff to plan operations and logistics, and to produce and transmit orders to superior and subordinate units. Still in its developmental stage, the SIR shows great promise, as a command and control tool. The French Army views the AMX-Leclerc. as the centerpiece of the modem battlefield, but it recognizes that the tank will fight in a combined arms environment involving infantry, engineers, artillery, and attack helicopters. The Armor and Cavalry Studies and Experimentations Bureau and the French Army Staff are working to describe how combat, combat support, and combat service support units will operate together on the battlefield. To this end, armor-infantry cooperation is being scrutinized, with the possible redefinition of mechanized infantry‘s role, at least until it has a combat vehicle that permits it to fight “alongside” the Leclerc on the heavy, conventional battlefield. The Armor and Cavalry Branch is on the leading edge of the French Army’s evolving employment doctrine because AMX-Leclerc-equipped units will be the first to gain experience as part of an integrated command and control system linking combat, combat support, and combat service support units to synchronize all arms and services. The lessons they learn will helD to define how the entire View through the “Castor” thermal sight on the French AMX-BOB. French Army operates on the conventional battlefield. The Armor and Cavalry Instruction Center, located at Carpiagne in southern France, will be the AMX-Leclerc fielding site. Units will come to the center to draw their tanks, undergo training, and then depart for their home garrison with the new equipment, much in the same fashion as U. S. units go to the Combined Arms Training Center at Vilseck, Germany, for New Equipment Training. Individual training will change due to the reduction in crew size from four to three personnel and the tank‘s greatly increased capabilities. The French Army is studying the necessary aptitude level for an AMX-Leclerc crewmen, for it is certain that the tank’s sophistication will require soldiers to have a higher overall level than is currently demanded of an AMX- 30B/B2 crewman. Currently, a French tank regiment contains either 70 or 52 tanks, depending on its division’s organization. (Figure 1) If the unit is in a division that has two tank regiments, its 70 tanks are distributed among four fourrplatoon squadrons. Tank units belonging to divisions that have three armor regiments have 52 tanks divided among three four-platoon squadrons. (A squadron is the equivalent of a U. S. company.) Though the tank regiment’s structure will change with the AMX-Leclerc’s arrival, the final decision concerning its organization has not 38 ARMOR -

Regiment [H 2-REQMENT DMSlON 2 A M X e o W Fig. 1A HQ I 1 AMxeOB/B2

Regiment IN 3 - R E m DIW I Fig. 1B HC) I I t AMX-182 Current AMX-30 Regimenta

Organizations yet been made. Figure 2 shows the candidate organization for the Leclerc regiment. The concept is a radical change from current organizations, for the unit is divided into two @-tank squadron groups. During peacetime, the regiment would regroup administrative and logistics functions to save infrastructure and personnel costs. In wartime, the regimental commander, a full colonel, would move to division headquarters to advise the division commander on armor employment, and the squadron groups would fight independently. Two regiments, the 503erlle Regiment de Chars de Combat and the 4emc Regiliteitt de Dragons began testing this structure at Camp Mourmelon in eastern France in September. If, for whatever reason, the 80-tank regiment is not adopted for the AMX-Leclerc, the "fallback organization could be a 52-tank regiment consisting of four 13-tank squadrons. Regardless of the decision concerning the regiment's organization, a squadron's structure will change, for a Leclerc squadron will have three platoons, rather than the current four. Armor Cavalry's Changing Role French tankers are not the only members of the French Armor Corps who are dealing with change. In 1988-89, the Armor and Cavalry Inspector General directed a reevaluation of armor cavalry doctrine. This re-evaluation originated in part from the anticipation that French forces would be engaged in a European conflict in a secondechelon role, therefore giving a French corps commander access to all allied intelligence-gathering systems. The commander would also profit from information gathered by the ground and airborne sensors that the French Army will field within the next decade, such as an airborne surveillance radar. The corps reconnaissance regiment would therefore not need to deploy 50 to 80 kilometers forward of the main body to gain contact and to inform the corps commander of the enemy's location, strength, and axes of advance. Furthermore, the AMX-lORC, though armed with a 105-mm cannon capable of firing an AF'FSDS round, is not suited well for head-to-head combat with the latest Soviet or Warsaw Pact tanks. Thus, the French Army is no longer convinced that an enemy so equipped could be countered by French armor cavalry units alone. Nevertheless, the agility and firepower of a unit formed from armor cavalry elements and the corps attack helicopter regiment make it able to counter an airborne or airmobile threat posed along a flank or in the corps rear area by BMDs, BMPs, or older Warsaw Pact tanks. Therefore, it is more and more unlikely that a corps reconnaissance regiment would ARMOR - 39 deploy its squadrons far to the front of the corps main body to perform classic ground reconnaissance missions. French doctrine has already changed to reflect reconnaissance by fire as a supplement to information gathered by ground-based and airborne sensors, and the role of the armor cavalry will be to prepare engagements, maintain contact between allied units, intervene to counter airborne threats to rear areas, temporarily block a penetration, or counterattack by fire. At the same time, the units will continue to gather information for the corps commander. Armor cavalry's name reflects its changing battlefield role. For many years, it was known as "CLB - Casalerie Legere Blirtdee, or Light Armor Cavalry. As their role evolved, units became known as RCM - Roue, Canon, Missile, or. "Wheel, Cannon, Missile" regiments, light armor units have yet to receive an official name, but the term Re@- matts de "RSr' - Recoititaissartce, Surete, et Iittenention, or "Reconnaissance, Security, and Intervention" Regiments is frequently used to describe the role of these organizations. Light armor units are an integral part of France's rapid deployment force, the FAR. Units such as the ler Re@ittertt Etraitger de Cavalene (1st Foreign Legion Cavalry Regiment), the let Regirttent de Hussar& Paracltutistes (1st Hussar Parachute Regiment), and the ler Regintent d'lltfanterie de Chars de Marine (1st Marine Infantry Tank Regiment) have deployed to such countries as Gabon, the Central African Republic, and Chad as part of a task force combining armor, in- --- I HQ I - 1 AMX UxLERc

PROTECIlON

Fig. 2 Provisional 80-Tank LECLERC Regiment Organization fantry, artillery, and combat engineer units. Because there was no written doctrine for how alight armor unit should operate in such an environment, unit commanders adapted existing armor cavalry doctrine to their situations as best they could. Recognizing that this is a less-than-ideal solution to the problem, the Armor and Cavalry Studies and Experimentations Bureau is filling the doctrinal void for intervention armor units with a series of manuals describing how they fight as part of a combined arms task force that must intervene overseas. Light armor units in the FAR have what is, in effect, a double mission. They perform many of the classic armor-cavalry missions, such as reconnaissance and surveillance, and have a direct-fire combat mission as part of the combined arms team. In many ways, these units perform the same missions as our regimental cavalry squadrons. The manuals describing how armor units function as part of a groupement d'intervention (intervention group, or task force) will be published within the next year. Unit commanders will no longer have to adapt doctrine written for the corps reconnaissance regiment or the armor regiment of a motorized infantry division to an intervention mission as part of a combined arms task force. Conclusion What does the future hold for the French Armor and Cavalry? Change. Unit structure will change. How tank regiments fight will evolve. Commanders will have to be adept at using an automated command and control system. Tanks will have more firepower and be faster, more sophisticated, and more survivable. Crews will be smaller. Cavalry will do more than just reconnaissance. Light armor, rapid deployment units will have new doctrine to absorb and apply. The forecast holds change, but not upheaval, for French cavalrymen, for they are already preparing for the future. By the time the first serial AMX-Leclerc leaves the assembly line in late 1991, decisions 40 ARMOR -

This French Army VAB 4x4 is a 120-mm towed mortar crew vehicle. concerning the regimental organization will have long since been made. How a Leclerc-equipped unit will fight will not be defined completely, but the draft doctrine will exist to use as a starting point. A system for training individual crewmen and units will be in place at the Armor and Cavalry Instruction Center well before the first squadron reports for new equipment training. Tanks, though more powerful, sophisticated, and survivable, are still a known quantity in many ways. Getting the optimum individual and unit performance from a given weapon system is a never ending effort for any army, whether the system is the MlA2 Abrams or the AMX-Leclerc. Cavalry, whether French or American, has always prided itself on its adaptability and its acceptance of new challenges, and the phrase "change of mission" is so common to cavalrymen that it is almost a cliche. French cavalry regiments are already applying doctrine that was little more than a concept a year ago. Whether known as CLB, RCM, or RSI makes little difference to these units, for they have never stopped looking for better ways to accomplish their mission. The spirit that rode with the units at Austerlitz is far from dead. Firmly rooted in their proud history and heritage, the descendants of Ney, Lyautey, and Leclerc are prepared to meet today and tomorrow's challenge with esprit and elan. Par St. Geoees, V7ve la Cavalerie!. Notes 'Gerard Turbe, "France's tight Armoured Cavalry: A Radical Change in Operafinal Concept." International Defense Review, December 1989. ARMOR - Major Timothy R. Decker is a 1976 USMA graduate. He has served as tank platoon leader, CS company XO, and heavy mortar platoon leader in 1-77 Armor, Fort Carson, Colo.; as aide to the deputy commanding general, U. S. Army Recruiting Command, Ft. Sheridan, 111,; and as BMO, S3 Air, and Mi tank company commander in 2-5 Cav, 2-67 Armor, and 3-66 Armor, Ft. Hood, Texas. He was an NTC maneuver analyst at CALL, Combined Arms Training Activity, Ft. Leavenworth, Kan.; and recently served as the U. S. Army Armor Center Liaison Officer to the French Armor and Cavalry School in Samur, France. He is currently attending the U. S. Army Command and General Staff College at Ft. Leavenworth. 41