2006 Abu Dhabi Weapons and Equipment Exhibition 1, 1 The brand-new 8x8 wheeled chariot prototype stopped visitors. It is an unknown French VBCI wheeled infantry fighting vehicle. In 2002, VBCI armored vehicles appeared again at the Satolli Weapons and Equipment Exhibition. This time, the French showed their "masterpiece" at home, and naturally they worked very hard. They occupied a "golden position" and arranged a luxurious venue for VBCI infantry fighting vehicles, which naturally attracted people's attention. So, how did the VBCI chariot come into being? It turns out that as early as the early 1990s, the French Army put forward a plan to develop modular armored combat vehicles (VBM) in order to find a substitute for the currently equipped AMX- 10P infantry fighting vehicles. In order to reduce development costs and risks, the French military wants to recruit several partners. Soon, the British and Germans responded positively, and the "European armored vehicle" plan took a gratifying first step. However, like many previous cooperative development plans for armored vehicles, this Romance of the Three Kingdoms failed to continue. In the late 1990s, the European armored vehicle cooperation plan was interrupted. In March 2000, after extensive consultation, the General Armament Department of the French Army selected GIAT and Renault to jointly develop a new generation of wheeled infantry fighting vehicles in France. Temporarily named VBCI infantry fighting vehicle. In fact, VBCI means "infantry fighting vehicle" in French, and it may be named by other names in the future.

Soon, two famous French companies came to a "strong alliance" and set up a new sartori military vehicle company based in the Versailles-sartori area in the southwest of Paris. Both parties agree that GIAT is responsible for the protection, internal layout, command system, communication sighting system, weapon system and final assembly of the whole vehicle; Renault is responsible for the propulsion system (including engine, gearbox, suspension and gear train, etc. ), electrical system and cockpit. It can be considered that this division of labor gives full play to the respective strengths of the two companies and is a veritable "strong alliance". According to the contract signed between Satolli Military Vehicle Company and the French military, the company will formally produce in 2006. The military plans to purchase 700 VBCI infantry fighting vehicles, with the first batch of 65 vehicles (54 infantry fighting vehicles and 1 1 command vehicles), and the remaining 635 vehicles will be supplied from 2009 to 20 13, of which 496 are infantry fighting vehicles and 139 are command vehicles. In addition, countries that are ready to place orders are Belgium, Denmark, Greece and Portugal. It can be considered that although the two appearances of VBCl are only prototypes (ICB), the sales momentum is good and eye-catching.

VBCI infantry fighting vehicle adopts 8×8 wheeled chassis, which has high maneuverability, good maneuverability and strong battlefield deployment ability, and can be transported by air, sea, railway and highway flatbed. From front to back, the car body is: cab and power cabin, combat cabin and passenger compartment. On the left side of the front of the car body is the cab, which is an independent cabin, separated from the power cabin by a partition board and communicated with the rear through a channel. The cockpit cover is opened to the right, and there are three periscopes in front. 1 in the middle can be replaced by night vision goggles, and the driver's seat can be adjusted. The power cabin is located on the right, with the engine and gearbox in front and the water radiator behind. The clever arrangement of engine exhaust pipe can reduce the infrared thermal characteristics of vehicles. There is a large inspection window on the upper part of the power cabin, which is convenient for the maintenance and overall replacement of the engine and gearbox. The battle room, including the turret and weapons, is also independent, separated from other parts by a cylindrical lattice. The position of the battle room is slightly to the right, leaving a passage on its left side. The rear passenger compartment is relatively spacious, with a total volume of 13 cubic meters. Passengers' seats are independent, and two rows of passengers sit face to face. At the rear of the car body is a wide gangplank tailgate, which can be opened downward by hydraulic device, and there is also a small door opening to the right on the tailgate. It is worth noting that there is no shooting hole on the VBCI infantry fighting vehicle, which is the current "international fashion color" and a measure that has to be taken after installing armor. It can be considered that the occupants of the VBCI infantry fighting vehicle mainly fight with the following vehicles.

The net weight of the whole vehicle shall not exceed18t, the load capacity shall be10t, and the total combat weight shall be controlled within 26t. The car is 7.8 meters long, 2.98 meters wide and 2.26 meters high. There are 2 crew members (conductor and driver) and 9 crew members. This 1 1 people formed the 1 infantry squad. The number of passengers can be considered as 2+9 or 3+8. Because the conductor can take eight brothers out of the car to fight, or he can stay in the car and direct the gunner and driver to fight in the car.

From the weight index introduced above, careful readers may find a "contradiction": net weight 18 tons, load 10 tons, and the total combat weight should be 28 tons. How can it be only 26 tons? This is a good question. Originally, there were two considerations: on the one hand, NATO required that the carrying weight of A400M and C- 17 transport aircraft should not exceed 26 tons, and the vehicle width should not exceed 2.75 meters; On the other hand, developers have reserved 2 tons of bearing potential in this respect. In other words, the potential of weapon upgrading and armor thickening is reserved. At the same time, it can be seen. Before boarding the plane, VBCI infantry fighting vehicles should "lose weight" and remove the additional armor on both sides, which is also a last resort.

The power plant is Renault's inline 6-cylinder supercharged diesel engine, which is an improved civil engine with a maximum power of 500 HP. The transmission is a fully automatic gearbox with four central differentials. The steering mechanism is power steering, and the minimum steering radius: the normal value is 1 1 m, and the minimum steering radius can reach 8.6 m when braking. The suspension device is a liquid-gas mechanical mixing type. The rear four wheels are driving wheels, and the front four wheels are steering wheels. Through front afterburner, the first four wheels can also become driving wheels, which becomes an 8×8 driving form. The tires are 395/90R22 low-pressure bullet-proof tires with central tire pressure regulation system. The maximum speed of VBCI infantry fighting vehicle is 100 km/h, the maximum range is 750 km, the vertical wall crossing height is 0.7 m, the wading depth is 1.2 m when it is unprepared, 1.5 m when it is prepared, and it has no buoyancy, the maximum climbing degree is 3 1 degree, and the maximum lateral direction. As can be seen from the above data, the maneuverability of VBCI infantry fighting vehicles is quite good.

The weapon system of VBCI infantry fighting vehicle is another "bright spot". Turret is a well-known "dragon" single turret. The gunner sat in a special war room, looked at various color display screens and dashboards, and manipulated the artillery to shoot at the right time. Its main weapon is 1 M8 1 1 25mm cannon. The barrel length is L _ 37m, which is 54.8 times of the caliber. Two-way ammunition supply, firing rate 125 rounds, divided into two types, 400 rounds. It can also be used for single shot, triple continuous shooting and 10 continuous shooting. The types of shells fired are: APFS DS-T, APDS-T and armor-piercing projectiles. At the shooting distance of 1000 meters, when launching a stable trailing armor-piercing projectile, it can penetrate 85 mm thick homogeneous steel armor. In contrast, the M242 "Viper" 25mm cannon on the famous M2 "bradley" infantry fighting vehicle fired an armor-piercing projectile with trailing light at a shooting distance of 1000m, and its armor-piercing power was 66mm. In other words, the M8 1 1 cannon is as powerful as the "Viper" 25mm cannon. The auxiliary weapon is 1 7.62mm parallel machine gun, which is located on the right side of 25mm cannon. The fire control system includes: gunner's image stabilizing sight, laser rangefinder and thermal imager. The overall performance reaches or approaches the level of fire control system of contemporary main battle tanks.

Generally speaking, the firepower of VBCI infantry fighting vehicles has reached the level of advanced tracked infantry fighting vehicles in 1980s, and the performance of fire control system is more advanced, so it should be more than enough to deal with light armored targets such as enemy infantry fighting vehicles or armored transport vehicles. The protection performance of VBCI infantry fighting vehicles is also excellent, and many comprehensive protection measures have been taken, and all aspects have been considered thoroughly. The armored density of the whole vehicle reaches 0.55 tons cubic meter. Armor density is a comprehensive index to measure the armor protection of chariots, which is expressed by dividing the total combat weight of chariots by the total volume of chariots. The higher the armor density, the better its armor protection. The armored density of wheeled armored fighting vehicles is generally 0.45-0.60 tons, m3, while the armored density of VBCI infantry fighting vehicles reaches 0.55 tons /m3, which is quite high.

The body of VBCI infantry fighting vehicle adopts aluminum alloy welded structure, which not only realizes light weight, but also enhances the armor protection of the whole vehicle. On the basis of armor, additional armor and anti-mine measures have been installed in all directions. General armored combat vehicles usually only add extra armor on the front and side of the car body, while VBCI infantry hidden vehicles add extra armor on the front, back, left and right sides and top of the car body, and the bottom of the car body is reinforced with reinforced titanium alloy modular armor. This kind of titanium alloy armor may be a two-layer composite armor, which can prevent both tracked lightning and bottom lightning, and has strong bulletproof ability. Anti-falling lining is installed inside the car body, which can effectively prevent the damage of debris. The stealth design of the whole vehicle can effectively reduce the infrared and radar characteristics of the vehicle. The whole vehicle adopts three prevention devices and fire extinguishing and explosion suppression devices.

In terms of protection, it is worth mentioning two more. One is GALIX multi-purpose smoke bomb/Grenade launcher, which is a unique skill on Leclerc main battle tank and has the prototype of active protection system. Another is that the periscope used by the crew is equipped with a laser protection device, which can work instantly when the enemy's laser blinding weapon is irradiated to prevent the crew's eyes from being damaged by laser. This is a unique new gadget on VBCI.

Due to these comprehensive measures, the protection performance of VBCI infantry fighting vehicles is better than that of general wheeled or tracked infantry fighting vehicles.

The ergonomics of the whole vehicle is also carefully considered, from the passenger's seat to the noise reduction measures and temperature control in the car, which provide a comfortable fighting and living environment for the passengers.

VBCI is a "digital infantry fighting vehicle", and its core is a digital battlefield management system (FINDER). This system is a mature technology on Leclerc tank, including: Srr information display terminal, friend or foe identification system, digital battlefield map and PR4G VHF tactical radio. The system can quickly, accurately and clearly answer "Where am I", "Where are the friendly forces", "Where are the enemies", "What is my task" and how much fuel and ammunition are left in the car. With this system, it can provide superior commanders and passengers with the latest battlefield situation and the tactical and technical situation of their own vehicles, so that commanders can command battles "as simple as playing computer games". Of course, the war is cruel, but at least it can free the crew from the highly tense battlefield environment. SIT information display terminal can be installed with 1 set (for the conductor) or 2 sets (for the conductor and gunner).