The Renault VBC-90 (''Véhicule Blindé de Combat'', or "Armoured Combat Vehicle") is a six-wheeled French armoured car carrying a 90mm high-velocity gun mated to a sophisticated

fire control computer Fire is the rapid oxidation of a fuel in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. Flames, the most visible portion of the fire, are produced in the combustion reaction when the fuel ...

and ranging system. It was developed primarily for internal security or armed reconnaissance purposes. Modeled after Renault's

Véhicule de l'Avant Blindé The or VAB (literally meaning "Armoured Forward Vehicle"; but more appropriately translated: "Armoured Vanguard Vehicle") is a French armoured personnel carrier and support vehicle designed and manufactured by ''Renault Trucks Defense'' (now kno ...

(VAB) armoured personnel carrier, the VBC-90 was engineered in concert with

Saviem The Société Anonyme de Véhicules Industriels et d'Équipements Mécaniques (), commonly known by the acronym Saviem (), was a French manufacturer of trucks and buses/coaches part of the Renault group, headquartered in Suresnes, Île-de-France ...

and

Creusot-Loire Creusot-Loire was a French engineering conglomerate, formed from factories in Le Creusot and Châteauneuf, Loire. The Creusot-Loire subsidiary of ArcelorMittal also includes an Innovation, Research and Development centre for the group. History Th ...

. One was also built in prototype form by

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

under license, where it was known as the ''Vehículos de Apoyo y Exploración''.Sánchez Rubio, Rodolfo. ''Carrera armamentista en el Cono Sur de América 1940-1981: teoría y práctica''. Estado Mayor General del Ejercito (Chile) 1985. OCLC 20069482 p 141. VBC variants were available with various hull configurations resembling those of the VAB and the

Berliet VXB-170 The Berliet VXB-170 is a four-wheel armoured vehicle used primarily as an internal security vehicle. Developed and initially produced by Berliet until Berliet was merged with Saviem to form Renault Trucks (now Arquus), it lost to the Saviem VAB ...

Development History

The VBC-90 was developed by Renault and Saviem as a specialized reconnaissance and fire support variant of the ''Véhicule de l'Avant Blindé''. It had a very wide turret ring and was manufactured specifically to carry a large-calibre gun system. At least two prototypes had been completed by 1979 and were initially designated ''VCS-90''. The first two had boat-shaped hulls and glacis plates reminiscent of the VXB-170 and VAB, respectively. They essentially resembled six-wheeled variants of these vehicles, albeit with larger turret rings. The third had a more unique hull and a sloping glacis plate. It was this variant which was eventually accepted for production as the VBC-90. Unlike the VAB, the VBC was not developed to meet a

French Army The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (, , ), is the principal Army, land warfare force of France, and the largest component of the French Armed Forces; it is responsible to the Government of France, alongside the French Navy, Fren ...

requirement and was intended solely for export to French military clients overseas.Kolodziej, Edward A. "Making and Marketing Arms: The French Experience and Its Implications for the International System." ''Princeton University Press'', 2014. . pp 274–275. Nevertheless, from 1981, the French government ordered 28 VBC-90s for a single squadron of the

Mobile Gendarmerie The Mobile Gendarmerie () (GM) is a subdivision of the French National Gendarmerie whose main mission is to maintain public order (from crowd control to riot control) and general security. Contrary to the Departmental Gendarmerie, whose jurisdic ...

, as a replacement for the ageing

AMX-13 The AMX-13 is a French light tank produced from 1952 to 1987. It served with the French Army, as the Char 13t-75 Modèle 51, and was exported to more than 26 other nations. Named after its initial weight of 13 tonnes, and featuring a tough and re ...

light tanks. The last one was delivered in 1984. VBCs produced by Renault for the Gendarmerie were designated ''VBC-90G''.Senat Avis: Premiere Session Ordinaire de 1986–1987 (Tome V)
/ref> Another 6 were delivered to Oman between 1984 and 1985 as part of a much larger shipment of VABs for the Royal Omani Guard. Oman has since announced it will be phasing out its VBC-90s in favor of the much more heavily armed

B1 Centauro The Centauro is a family of Italian military vehicles originating from a wheeled tank destroyer for light to medium territorial defense and tactical reconnaissance. It was developed by a consortium of manufacturers, the Società Consortile Iveco ...

. The French gendarmerie relegated its VBCs to reserve storage in the early 2000s. A simplified VBC-90 variant known as the ''Vehículos de Apoyo y Exploración'' (VAPE) was developed for

by Renault. It was trialled alongside a much heavier model of the ERC 90 Sagaie offered by Panhard, but neither of the two were adopted by the Argentine Army. In 2014,

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

was lobbying for the purchase of an undisclosed number of VBC-90s. The deal was to be partly financed with military grants from

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

but was frozen in 2016 due to tensions between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia.

Specifications

It has a steel hull armoured to protect against

small arms A firearm is any type of gun that uses an explosive charge and is designed to be readily carried and operated by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see legal definitions). The first firearms originate ...

fire. It has a crew of three, with the driver sitting at the front of the vehicle with three bullet-proof windows provided for the driver. A GIAT TS 90 turret carries the commander and gunner, and carries an armament of a 90 mm cannon with a co-axial 7.62 mm machine gun. 20 rounds of 90 mm ammunition are carried in the turret, with a further 25 rounds in the hull. It is powered by a six-cylinder

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compr ...

mounted at the rear of the hull, driving a 6x6 drive. The vehicle is not

amphibious Amphibious means able to use either land or water. In particular it may refer to: Animals * Amphibian, a vertebrate animal of the class Amphibia (many of which live on land and breed in water) * Amphibious caterpillar * Amphibious fish, a fish ...

, unlike the VAB on which it was based.

Operators

Former operators

* *

Potential operators

Gallery

File:VBC-90 img 2376.jpg File:VAPE-1.png File:VAB and VBC-90 in Oman 1981.jpg

References

*Foss, Christopher F. ''Jane's Armour and Artillery 1987–88''. London: Jane's Yearbooks, 1987. . *Foss, Christopher F. ''Jane's Tanks and Combat Vehicles Recognition Guide''. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 2002. .

External links

Presentation
(French) {{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 Armoured cars of France Fire support vehicles Internal security vehicles Wheeled armoured fighting vehicles Wheeled reconnaissance vehicles Six-wheeled vehicles Reconnaissance vehicles of the Cold War Military vehicles introduced in the 1980s