M93 Fox

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The Fox ( M93, M93A1, and M93A1P1) vehicle is a Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear reconnaissance vehicle. This vehicle was designed from the Rheinmetall manufactured TPz1 to survive and provide reconnaissance on a CBRN affected battlefield. It is currently undergoing a retrofit program to improve the survivablility and relevance on the modern battlefield. In addition to the survivability upgrade, the mass spectrometer has the added capacity to identify numerous industrial chemical hazards. This allows the reconnaissance section to identify any environmental hazards(TIC/TIM) in its area of operations.

[edit] History

The Fox system was developed originally for use by the German Army; finding itself being requested by the US Military in the late 1980s under the NBCRS-Non-Developmental Item Program. Initially in the first of three phases, 48 working XM93's were delivered under urgent building guidelines, following that issue, another 60 working XM93 models were donated by the German Government for the US Military actions with Operation Desert Storm. The ongoing 'Block 1' modification phase, currently is upgrading all previous XM93 models, to the M93A1 configuration; who's configuration was officially approved for production and fielding in 1995. From January to July 1998 it's production qualification runs were completed successfully, and the US Army's first productions were equipped with the NBCRS-Fox Block 1 system (M93A1) in October 1998.

[edit] System specifications (M93A1)^[1]

System Characteristics:

• Weight: 17 tons
• Length: 22.25 ft
• Height: 8.1 ft
• Max Speed: 65 mph (on-road); 6 mph (amphibious use)
• Powerplant: Mercedes-Benz OM 402A V-8 diesel
• Horsepower: 320 bhp
• Crew: 3
• Basis of Issue: 6 per recon platoon (1 platoon per heavy division); 6 per ACR; 1 per separate brigade; additional assets at Corps level

[edit] References

1. ^ US Army Fact File. Retrieved on 2006-10-20.