The US Army wants to transform its Stryker into an EBRC

Two years ago, the US Army presented the BRUTUS self-propelled gun, a 777mm M155 howitzer mounted on a 6 × 6 FMTV truck, intended to assess the interest of the transported artillery model highlighted by the CAESAR gun from French Nexter, which showed its full potential in the hands of French gunners in Iraq against the Islamic State. Since, the CAESAR system was selected for evaluation by the US Army, alongside the Iron Saber of the Israeli Elbit, the BAe Archer and the Brutus, to help replace the light towed guns in combat units. It must be said that the French industrialists in the field of armored vehicles, Nexter like Arquus, have developed extraordinary know-how to design light armored weapon systems very mobile, with a high firepower, and offering a more than attractive performance-price-quality ratio.

This was particularly the case of the AMX-10RC, the light tank mounted on a 6 × 6 chassis and armed with a 105mm gun, which proved to be very efficient from the first Gulf War to Afghanistan, combining mobility unparalleled in great firepower. His successor, EBRC Jaguar, should enter service from this year within the French light cavalry units, but also Belgian. Mounted on the same 6 × 6 chassis as the VBMR Griffon which ensures in particular the troop transport missions under armor, the EBRC has a 40 mm CTAS gun co-developed with the British BAe and using 40mm telescoped ammunition, as well as a 7,62mm machine gun in turret, and two MMP anti-tank missiles in autonomous turret. It also carries a vast array of electro-optical systems, as well as the entire SCORPION collaborative combat system. Thus prepared, the EBRC will carry out armed reconnaissance missions, as well as fire support missions for the benefit of dismounted infantry or tank units.

Obviously, the concept of the EBRC has, as was the case with CAESAR, also appealed to the US Army. Indeed, it has just launched a competition to equip part of its Stryker armored vehicles with a combat turret, broadly using the same characteristics as that of the Jaguar: automatic cannon of 35mm or more, anti-missiles. -chars, 7,62mm remotely operated machine gun, in order to design the Stryker Medium Caliber Weapons System, or SMCWS, which will have to carry out armed reconnaissance missions and fire support for the benefit of infantry units, and replace Stryker Dragoon whose 30mm gun is now considered too weak to meet future needs. 5 companies were selected to offer their turret model: General Dynamics Land Systems, Kollsman, Leonardo, Raytheon and Pratt & Miller, each having received $ 150k to offer a turret model that meets expectations. The US Army plans to equip at least 3 of its 6 Stryker brigades SMCWS instead of the Dragoon to increase their firepower and engagement capacities from 2023.

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