Fox Armoured Reconnaissance Vehicle
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- This article is about the post-war British vehicle. For the World War II Canadian vehicle, see Fox Armoured Car.
| Fox | |
|---|---|
| General characteristics | |
| Crew | 3 |
| Length | 5.08 m |
| Width | 2.13 m |
| Height | 2.2 m |
| Weight | 6.75 t |
| Armour and armament | |
| Armour | |
| Main armament | 30 mm L21 Rarden cannon |
| Secondary armament | co-axial 7.62 mm L7A2 machine gun |
| Mobility | |
| Power plant | gasoline 190 hp (142 kW) |
| Suspension | Wheel |
| Road speed | 104 km/h |
| Power/weight | 28.1 hp/tonne |
| Range | 434 km |
The FV 721 Fox Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (wheeled) was a 4x4 armoured car deployed by the British Army as a replacement for the Ferret scout car and the Saladin Armoured Car. The Fox was introduced into service in May 1973 and withdrawn in 1993/4.
It had a crew of three and had a low profile rotating turret armed with a 30 mm L21 Rarden cannon which was manually fed with 3 round clips; 99 rounds were carried. A coaxial L7A2 7.62 mm machine gun was mounted with 2,600 rounds. The weapons were not stabilised. This turret was also equipped with a set of 2 4-barrelled smoke dischargers. The vehicle had a combat weight of 6.75 tonnes and was designed to be air-portable. The Fox had aluminium armour and was fitted with a flotation screen. It lacked protection against nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Powered by a Jaguar 4.2 litre 6 cylinder multifuel engine, the Fox was one of the fastest vehicles of its type.
An un-turreted version, Vixen, was planned and trialled but never entered production. An example of the Vixen is held at the Bovington museum.
The turret of the Fox has been remounted on the chassis of the Scorpion tank to create a new tracked reconnaissance vehicle, the Sabre, that is cheaper to produce than the similar FV107 Scimitar. A small number of Fox turrets were added to modified FV 432s in the mid-1970s, but this project was abandoned after 13 were converted.
[edit] External links
| Modern (post WW2) UK armoured fighting vehicles |
|---|
| Wheeled vehicles |
| Ferret Scout Car | Fox Reconnaissance Vehicle | Saladin Armoured Car | Saracen APC |
| FV1611 "Pig" | Saxon | Mastiff PPV |
| Armoured personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles |
| FV432 | Warrior | FV103 Spartan | Stormer | FV104 Samaritan | FV105 Sultan |
| Light tanks and anti-tank vehicles |
| FV101 Scorpion | FV107 Scimitar | Sabre | FV102 Striker | FV438 Swingfire |
| Self-propelled artillery |
| FV433 Abbot | AS-90 |
| Main battle tanks |
| Centurion | Conqueror | Chieftain | Challenger 1 | Challenger 2 |
| UK unarmoured or non-fighting vehicles |
| 4 x 4 AML | BRDM-2 | Ferret | FV 721 Fox | Piranha |
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