NEWTOWN, Conn. - In March 2010, the U.K. Ministry of Defence selected the ASCOD design to fulfill the British Army's Future Rapid Effect System Specialist Vehicle (FRES SV) armored requirement.
The FRES SV program is considered to be among the most pressing and high-profile acquisition priorities of the British Army. The program is intended to provide the service with a modern, modular replacement for its long-dependable but rapidly aging inventories of CVR-T vehicles.
The British Army currently operates around 650 active CVR-T vehicles, in an extensive array of configurations intended to fulfill niche battlefield roles. The U.K. MoD set upon a planned procurement of up to 580 FRES SV vehicles in its initial projections, enough to fully supplement the CVR-T over the decade subsequent to the vehicle's planned service entry in 2015.
However, it was not long into the program's lifespan before both difficult economic circumstances and considerable developmental delays threatened to derail the MoD's ambitions.
The U.K. government's 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review called for a significant reduction in funding across the armed services, owing to shifting strategic requirements, the lingering impact of the 2008 financial crisis, and the new fiscal challenges imposed by the implementation of stringent economic austerity measures by Westminster.
Despite the importance of FRES SV to the U.K. MoD and British Army, the program was not immune to fears of downsizing or even outright cancellation. Rumors swirled about the program's solvency under the new defense guidelines, as it continued to miss milestones and was plagued by developmental shortfalls, all at considerable expense.
However, by mid-2014 the program was beginning to get back on track, passing several important testing milestones and seeming to have come out largely unscathed from the funding troubles.
With development continuing apace at last and economic conditions seeing some measure of stabilization, the U.K. MoD and government forcefully reaffirmed their commitment to the FRES SV program in September 2014 by placing a firm procurement order for 589 SCOUT SV vehicles in an array of variants.
This acquisition quantity, in line with the Army and MoD's initial requirements, carries a cost of some $5.8 billion (GBP3.5 billion).
The contract calls for deliveries to begin in 2017 and run through 2023, barring any delays.
The FRES SV order is intended to be broken out as follows:
Of the 245 turreted SCOUT SV models, 198 will consist of the primary Reconnaissance variant, with the remaining 47 vehicles split roughly evenly between the Joint Fire Control and Ground-Based Surveillance subvariants.
Approximately 256 units of the order will be composed of the Protected Mobility Recce Support (PMRS) variant, outfitted with a remote weapons system (RWS). These 256 units will be split among the Command and Control, Armored Personnel Carrier (APC), Formation Overwatch, and Engineering Reconnaissance subvariants. Reports indicate that the Command and Control subvariant will compose the largest share of PMRS procurement, followed by the APC.
The remaining 88 vehicles on order will consist of two specialized engineering variants, intended for vehicle repair and recovery, respectively, for eventual operation by the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME).
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