Scout SV

The Scout SV (Specialist Vehicle) is a family of armoured fighting vehicles being developed by General Dynamics UK for the British Army. The Scout SV is a development of the ASCOD armoured fighting vehicle used by the Spanish and Austrian armed forces. The Family was originally developed by Steyr-Daimler-Puch Spezialfahrzeug and Santa Bárbara Sistemas in the early 1990s and in 2010 General Dynamics UK was selected as the winner of the Future Rapid Effect System contract with the ASCOD Common Base Platform, beating BAE Systems proposal with the CV-90. The Scout SV will be procured in a number of variants, initially planned to be in blocks, with the first vehicles planned to be delivered in 2017 and full operation capability being established by 2019.

Development history
Scout SV has its origins in the Future Rapid Effect System program which can trace its origins back to the 1990s when the joint UK/USA (TRACER) program was cancelled. The purpose of the FRES program is to find a replacement for the British Army's Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked) (CVR(T)) family of vehicles which have been in service with the British Army from as early as 1971. General Dynamics UK won the Future Rapid Effect System contract in March 2010 after years of competition from BAE Systems CV-90 proposal. After the Ministry of Defence had selected the ASCOD 2 Common Base Platform, BAE tried to reverse the decision by offering to manufacture the CV-90 at their Newcastle facility. Despite this the Ministry of Defence kept to the contract with General Dynamics UK and offered them a £500 million demonstration phase contract. Following on from this, General Dynamics conducted design review work using the input of soldiers and bringing the ASCOD 2 Chassis in line with the British requirements.

The Scout SV program passed the "Preliminary Design Review" (PDR), initial design point in December 2012. At this stage of development, a review of system maturity, and preliminary system design where held. Following on from this, in late 2013, the "Common Base Platform Critical Design Review" (CDR) was completed and development continued further. In June 2014, the PMRS variant of the Scout Family had officially completed its CDR and a "Mobile Test Rig", the precursor to a prototype, which had been undergoing rigorous testing, including cold weather and Operational and Tactical (O&T) mobility trials, as well as Accelerated Life Testing (ALT), had completed system de-risking. At DVD 2014, the first pre-production prototype of the PMRS variant was unveiled, built at General Dynamic's facilities in Spain.

Initially the Scout SV was planned to be procured in a number of blocks totaling 1010 vehicles. With the first order of Block 1 vehicles encompassing Scout Reconnaissance, PMRS APC, and Repair and Recovery variants, with Reconnaissance, C2, and Ambulance variants to follow in a second, Block 2, order. There was even a possibility for a third Block of vehicles encompassing a "Direct Fire" vehicle with a 120mm main gun, "Manouever Support" and a "Joint Fires" variant equipped to succeed the FV102 Striker in the anti-tank role. However, as of September 2014 Block 3 vehicles have been dropped and the ministry of Defence has said that there are currently "no plans" to order any Block 2 vehicles.

On the 3rd of September 2014, the British Government announced the order for 589 Scout SV vehicles ahead of the NATO Summit in Wales on the 4th of September 2014, totaling a cost of £3.5 billion excluding VAT. A number of Block 2 variants has been merged into the Block 1 order, which still encompassed the planned 589 vehicles.

The variants ordered include:
 * 244 turreted 'Scout' variants
 * 198 Reconnaissance and Strike
 * 23 Joint Fire Control
 * 24 Ground Based Surveillance
 * 265 Protected Mobility Recce Support (PMRS) variants
 * 59 Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC)
 * 112 Command and Control
 * 34 Formation Reconnaissance Overwatch
 * 51 Engineer Reconnaissance
 * 88 Engineering variants based on the PMRS
 * 38 Recovery vehicles
 * 50 Repair Vehicles

Further variants, including an ambulance type are speculated in a future Block 2 order. The vehicles currently on order will be handed over to the British Army in 2017 with the last being delivered around the 2026 mark.

Vehicle design
The Scout SV is manufactured and designed by General Dynamics UK, with the new turret and fire control system fitted on the Reconnaissance variant being designed and manufactured by Lockheed Martin UK. Lockheed Martin is working closely with the "Defence Support Group" for turret manufacture and assembly. 75% of turret and CT40 work will be carried out in the UK. The turrets ring is 1.7m in diameter allowing for much more work-space than comparable AFVs. The Scout SV is also equipped with a state of the art ISTAR package with advanced sensors and space for further future growth. This advanced ISTAR package allows for automated search, tracking and detection, more than doubling stand-off range at which targets can be identified and tracked.

The Scout SV also has a 20Gbs/s Gigabit Ethernet intelligent open architecture, which enables it to capture, process and store 6TBs of intelligence gathered by the sensors. It can then share this data, be it images or other information via a real-time integrated BOWMAN communication system as fitted to the Challenger 2. Power for these advanced systems comes from a silent auxiliary power generator. 80% of the vehicle manufacture will be completed in the UK, with 70% of the supply chain companies UK-based. 5 Pre production prototypes will be produced in Spain for further development and testing. The Scout SV will support 300 jobs at General Dynamics UK's facility in South Wales and an estimated, further 1000 jobs in the UK supply chain.

Users

 * 🇬🇧 United Kingdom - In development - 589 SV variants ordered.