French military aid to Ukraine is stepping up a gear. Emmanuel Macron announced, Wednesday, January 4, the next delivery of “light tanks” AMX-10 RC to Kyiv troops. Their number has not been specified but they will be taken from the endowment of the French army, which holds 248 copies of this vehicle intended for reconnaissance and support of infantry troops.
“Until victory, until peace returns to Europe, our support for Ukraine will not weaken”, pleaded the head of state, in a message posted on Twitter following a telephone interview with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky.
Designed in the 1970s, manufactured by the Nexter company, the AMX-10 RC is not strictly speaking a tank: it is mounted on wheels and not on tracks, and its armor has nothing to do with that of a Leclerc, the heavy tank which equips the French army. But its 105 mm gun is formidable in close combat and its mobility gives it an advantage over more massive equipment.
“It’s a very good all-terrain vehicle, the perfect watchdog to accompany armored personnel carriers and support infantry on the ground”, explains Marc Chassillan, engineer and specialist in land military equipment. Since the mid-1980s, France has engaged AMX-10 RC in Chad, Iraq, Kosovo and Mali, where it was described as “Rollers of the desert” by the French military.
“An armored vehicle intended for close combat”
This type of vehicle had been requested for months by Ukraine, which lacks armor to resist Russian troops but above all to support its future offensives. Until now, kyiv’s Western allies had refused to provide it with even light tanks, for fear of an escalation with Moscow.
“From a political point of view, this announcement is a marker. France will be the first to deliver what the military call a melee device, that is to say an armored vehicle intended for close combat., believes Mr. Chassillan. The United States is considering sending Bradleys, an infantry fighting vehicle similar to the AMX-10 RC, to Ukraine, but they haven’t announced it yet.
According to the Ministry of the Armed Forces, this shipment will not weaken the French troops, unlike the eighteen Caesar guns delivered to Ukraine, the absence of which reduces training capacities.
The AMX-10 RC in the Army’s possession have in fact begun to be replaced by a more modern vehicle, the Jaguar, 300 of which should enter service by 2030. The only question concerns the ammunition which will be delivered to Ukraine with the AMX-10 RC: the 105 mm shells fired by the tank are not standard and France is the only one to have them. “We must be careful not to endanger our operational availability since it is planned to use our AMX-10 RC until 2030”points out Marc Chassillan.
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