The ''Petit Véhicule Protégé'' ("Small Protected vehicle") is a light, general-purpose armoured 4-wheel drive vehicle used by the

French Army The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (french: Armée de Terre, ), is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces. It is responsible to the Government of France, along with the other components of the Armed Force ...

, made by

Panhard Panhard was a French motor vehicle manufacturer that began as one of the first makers of automobiles. It was a manufacturer of light tactical and military vehicles. Its final incarnation, now owned by Renault Trucks Defense, was formed ...

. It is also designated as Auverland A4 AVL (Armoured Vehicle Light). Built by

Auverland Auverland (''Société nouvelle des automobiles Auverland''), now grouped with Panhard, is a French manufacturer of Jeep-like four-wheel-drive and armoured fighting vehicles. It bought Panhard from Peugeot in April 2005, and in a reverse takeov ...

, it is one of the successors to the

Peugeot P4 The P4 is an unarmoured off-road vehicle used by the military of France. It was manufactured by Peugeot but is now manufactured by Panhard. It is to be replaced with the PVP by Panhard. The P4 is a derivative of the Mercedes Geländewagen milit ...

. It's intended mostly as personnel carrier, weapon carrier, and for reconnaissance, detection and communications purposes.

History

In 2004, the first batch of 314 vehicles was ordered. The first vehicles were delivered in February 2008 and production ended in July 2012. 100 vehicles will be fitted with the WASP light RWS. It is expected that the French DGA will order an additional 300 PVP vehicles. The 2009-14 military budget originally called for a total of 1500 PVPs, but this was reduced to 1233 in 2010 and 1133 in 2012. In the end, 1073 were delivered to the Army at a total cost of €242.7m (~US$325m) for a unit cost of €167,000 (~US$220,000), or €226,000 (~US$300,000) including development costs.

Design

The PVP is modular, allowing extra seats to be added for more personnel, or to be used as a light truck. The armour, made of steel and aluminium, offers level 2 protection (

STANAG 4569 NATO AEP-55 STANAG 4569 is a NATO Standardization Agreement covering the standards for the "Protection Levels for Occupants of Logistic and Light Armored Vehicles". The standard covers strikes from kinetic energy, artillery and IED blasts. Leve ...

) for the crew and the engine. The floor is protected against antipersonnel mines (type DM 31).

Variants

* PVP HD (Heavy Duty) – larger version, based on the same architecture but with level 3 armour. With 5 doors and more cargo area (2T payload, total internal volume of 7.9 m³). Gross vehicle weight is 7.6 tonnes. * PVP XL (Extra Large) – with a total internal volume of 9.4 m³ and a gross vehicle weight of 12 tonnes (max. payload: 3 tonnes). The maximum number of seats is 10. The basic armour of the XL model also offers a level 3 protection. * PVP APC – Based on the French Army's PVP but with a 150mm higher roofline to provide room for 6 troops. Developed in 2010. * Gavial – Unbuilt 5-door version with pneumatic suspension, to be licence-built by Rheinmetall. Offered to the Bundeswehr but they chose the

LAPV Enok The LAPV Enok is a Light Armoured Patrol Vehicle of the Bundeswehr, mostly in use with the German Army. It is a significantly further developed Wolf SSA, based on the Mercedes-Benz G-Class. The LAPV Enok is being manufactured by Armored Car Sy ...

instead. * Colt – License-built by Ashok Leyland, first revealed in 2012. Variants of the original PVP as the Colt Light Tactical Vehicle, the PVP HD as the Colt Light Armoured Vehicle and the Colt Airmobile.

Operators

* – 15 PVP delivered (Chilean Marines and

Grupo de Operaciones Policiales Especiales The Grupo de Operaciones Policiales Especiales (GOPE) ( en, Special Police Operations Group) is the police tactical unit of Carabineros de Chile which carries out high-risk police operations throughout the country, including bomb disposal, locat ...

) * – 1073 PVP delivered for the

and French police elite unit

RAID Raid, RAID or Raids may refer to: Attack * Raid (military), a sudden attack behind the enemy's lines without the intention of holding ground * Corporate raid, a type of hostile takeover in business * Panty raid, a prankish raid by male college ...

* - Said to operate an unknown number of PVPs. * – 16 PVP delivered from 2012–15. * – 8 PVPs delivered in 2008 for Togolese forces deployed with MINURCAT.

References

External links

PVP A4 AVL Data Sheet

Photographs of the Petit Véhicule Protégé
French Ministry of Defence.

on defense-update.com
Auverland A4 AVL
{{DEFAULTSORT:Petit Vehicule Protege Military trucks Panhard military vehicles Armoured cars of France Armoured personnel carriers of France Military vehicles introduced in the 2000s