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 | |
|---|---|
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| Type | Armoured car |
| Place of origin |  United Kingdom |
| Specifications | |
| Weight | 6.75 t |
| Length | 5.08 m |
| Width | 2.13 m |
| Height | 2.2 m |
| Crew | 3 |
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| Primary armament |
30 mm L21 RARDEN cannon |
| Secondary armament |
Co-axial 7.62 mm L37A2 machine gun |
| Engine | Petrol 190 hp (142 kW) |
| Power/weight | 28.1 hp/tonne |
| Suspension | Wheel |
| Operational range |
434 km |
| Speed | 104 km/h |
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 The Fox was introduced into service in May 1973 and withdrawn in 1993/4.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 L37A2 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.
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