The UK MoD is planning to buy around 600 vehicles under the first part of the FRES Specialist Vehicles programme, known as "Recce Block 1".
Nearly half of the armoured reconnaissance vehicles are a Scout variant and the rest are repair, recovery and protected mobility variants.
All will use the same chassis, referred to as a "common base platform." A scout vehicle needs very high protection levels on the modern battlefield. BAE Systems' combat-proven CV90 has made improvements in this area (and many others) with each of its six customers. We have fully met, and for certain threats, exceeded the MoD’s extremely challenging survivability requirements in mine blast trials. Trials commenced in 2004, culminating in a qualification test in 2008. Representative tests in 2009 have been successful against the FRES defined threats.
Furthermore, Our FRES SV Scout chassis has been modified from the base vehicle, reducing its physical size and therefore weight to optimise it for the army’s reconnaissance role. This has further increased the weight growth margins existing for CV90 while maintaining total system size and weight, consistent with the FRES reconnaissance requirement.
This evolutionary approach to meet changing threats means it is now the best-protected vehicle in its class, including mine protection comparable with a main battle tank - and yet it can be carried by an A400M.
The FRES Scout variant builds on this pedigree and features a shorter and lower profile chassis plus an electronic architecture, or operating system, specifically developed to meet the needs of the British Army. CV90's unusually low thermal and noise signatures and ability to perform long periods of silent watch suit it well for the Scout role.
A demonstrator vehicle began mobility and firing trials in September 2009.
