[3e] Renault VAB APC

[Phaelen Bleux]

Renault VAB APC (TL7)
The Vehicule de l'Avant Blinde (forward area armored vehicle) is a highly adaptable APC that is manufactured by Renault and Panhard. It is available as a 4x4 and 6x6, is fully amphibious, and can mount a variety of weapons systems. It has seen use in Operation Desert Storm, as well as a variety of UN peacekeeping missions to Bosnia, Cambodia, Croatia, Lebanon and Rwanda. The VAB had been in production since 1976, which a total of 5,000 vehicles built. It serves in the French Army, as well as in the armed forces of 15 export countries, including Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Kuwait, Mexico, Morocco, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Italy.
The VAB has a crew of two: driver and commander/gunner. It can carry 10 troops. The passenger seats fold away for addition cargo capacity. The VAB burns 5.74 gallons of diesel per hour of routine usage. A full load of fuel costs $98; 300 rounds of ammo costs $150.

Subassemblies: Body with 30-degree frontal slope +4, Open Mount [Body:T] -1, 6 off-road wheels +1.
Powertrain: 164-kW all-wheeled drivetrain with 164-kW improved diesel engine, 2,000-kWs lead acid battery.
Fuel: 82 gallons diesel in standard tank (Fire 9).
Occupancy: 2 NCS, 10 NPS.
Cargo: 150 cf. (sans passengers).

Armor
All: 4/70 (5/105 F)

Weaponry:
12.7mm Machine Gun [OMs:F] (300 rounds each).

Equipment:
Body: Medium-range radio with scrambler (30-mile); 12-man NBC kit, light amplification (periscope), navigation instruments. OM: Full stabilization.

Statistics:
Size: 20'x8'x6½' Payload: 2,967 lbs. Lwt.: 15.62 tons
Volume: 465 cf. Maint.: 43 hours Price: $212,820

HT: 12. HPs: 1080 Body, 185 each Wheel, 41 Open Mount.

gSpeed: 57 gAccel: 2.5 gDecel: 10 gMR: 0.75 gSR: 5
Ground Pressure: High. ¼ Off-Road speed.
wSpeed: 5 wAccel: 0.2 wDecel: 25 wMR: 0.25 wSR: 4
Flotation rating: 36,938 lbs. Draft: 2.1'.

Design Notes:
Body is 465 cf; wheels are 93 cf plus 33 cf, open mount is 2.24 cf. Structure is Heavy, Cheap with 30-degree slope on front. It has improved suspension, run flat tires and is sealed. Armor is standard metal. Mechanical controls. Design loaded weight was 31,420; this was lowered 1% to the historical. Calculated gSpeed was 58 mph, wSpeed was 4.1. Historical speeds are shown.
The wheels were calculated for a 4x4 design as normal (0.2 x Body Volume); the extra two wheels were assigned 33 cf and 62 sf to reproduce the HP value of 185.
The floatation rating for the body alone was 29,063, which is too low for the design. Since the wheels provide aquatic thrust, they were included in the flotation rating above. An alternative would have been to add 31 cf of wasted space to the body to increase flotation. In the field, add-on armor kits are available at the cost of making the vehicle non-amphibious, so it seems likely at the calculated values are close to the actual value, and the difference was ignored.

Variants:
The VAB comes in a myriad of variants, including an infantry fighting vehicle (VAB IFV), battlefield repair vehicle (VAB Echelon), HOT anti-tank vehicle (VAB VCAC), commander's vehicle (VAB PC), communications vehicle (VAB Transmission), battlefield engineering vehicle (VAB), electronic warfare vehicle (VAB Bromure), battlefield ambulance (VAB Saltaire), specialized security vehicle (VAB VMO), 120mm mortar carrier (VAB VTM 120), 81mm mortar carrier (VAB VPM 81), anti-aircraft defense variant with twin 20mm cannons (VAB AA), NBC carrier (VAB NBC), TOW anti-tank vehicle (VAB TOW), anti-aircraft variant with Mistral surface-to-air missiles (VAB MBDA), and the 6x6 version (VBC-90).

[omeyer]

Originally Posted by Phaelen Bleux

Renault VAB APC (TL7)
Variants:
The VAB comes in a myriad of variants, including an infantry fighting vehicle (VAB IFV), battlefield repair vehicle (VAB Echelon), HOT anti-tank vehicle (VAB VCAC), commander's vehicle (VAB PC), communications vehicle (VAB Transmission), battlefield engineering vehicle (VAB), electronic warfare vehicle (VAB Bromure), battlefield ambulance (VAB Saltaire), specialized security vehicle (VAB VMO), 120mm mortar carrier (VAB VTM 120), 81mm mortar carrier (VAB VPM 81), anti-aircraft defense variant with twin 20mm cannons (VAB AA), NBC carrier (VAB NBC), TOW anti-tank vehicle (VAB TOW), anti-aircraft variant with Mistral surface-to-air missiles (VAB MBDA), and the 6x6 version (VBC-90).

There are mortar tractors as well, unless those are your mortar carriers.