Fox armoured reconnaissance vehicle

This article is about the post-war British vehicle. For the World War II Canadian vehicle, see Fox Armoured Car.

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FV721 Fox
Type	Armoured car
Place of origin	United Kingdom
Specifications
Weight	6.75 t
Length	5.08 m
Width	2.13 m
Height	2.2 m
Crew	3
Armor	Aluminium
Primary armament	30 mm L21 RARDEN cannon
Secondary armament	Co-axial 7.62 mm L37A2 machine gun
Engine	Jaguar J.60 No 1 Mk 100B Petrol 190 hp (142 kW)
Power/weight	28.1 hp/tonne
Suspension	Wheel
Operational range	434 km (269.675 mi)
Speed	104 km/h (64.6 mph)

The FV721 Fox Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Wheeled) (CVR(W)) was a 4x4 armoured car deployed by the British Army as a replacement for the Ferret scout car and the Saladin Armoured Car. The Fox was introduced into service in May 1973 and withdrawn in 1993/4.

It had a crew of three and had a low profile rotating turret armed with a 30 mm L21 RARDEN cannon which was manually fed with 3 round clips; 99 rounds were carried. A coaxial L37A2 7.62 mm machine gun was mounted with 2,600 rounds. The weapons were not stabilised. This turret was also equipped with a set of 2 4-barrelled smoke dischargers. The vehicle had a combat weight of 6.75 tonnes and was designed to be air-portable. The Fox had aluminium armour and was fitted with a flotation screen. It lacked protection against nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Powered by a Jaguar 4.2 litre 6 cylinder multifuel engine, the Fox was one of the fastest vehicles of its type.

Variants

• FV722 Vixen - Un-turreted version, was planned and trialled but never entered production. An example of the Vixen is held at the Bovington museum.
• Polecat - There was at least one trial version of a Fox chassis mounting the standard UK GPMG one-man turret (as used on the FV432 APC) and possibly one with a larger one man turret mounting a M2 .5in heavy MG. Both types were proposed for use in Ulster during the 1980's as patrol vehicles.
• Panga - Export version for Malaysia, fitted with Helio FVT-800 machine gun turret. Prototype only.
• Fox-Scout - Escort version with 7.62mm machine gun (MAG or Chain gun) and 4,500 rounds. Prototype only.
• Fox 25 - Fitted with a 25 mm Chain Gun in a Sharpshooter turret. Crew: 2. Prototype only.
• Fox MILAN - Tankhunter version with MILAN Compact Turret. Prototype only.
• Sabre - The turret of the Fox has been remounted on the chassis of the Scorpion tank to create a new tracked reconnaissance vehicle, the Sabre, that is cheaper to produce than the similar FV107 Scimitar. 104 Sabres were created.
• FV432/30 - A small number of Fox turrets were added to modified FV 432s in the mid-1970s for the Berlin Brigade, but this project was abandoned after 13 were converted.

Operators

• Malawi - 70/22
• Nigeria - 55/75
• United Kingdom - 200 (withdrawn)

References

• Jane's Armour and Artillery 1993-1994, Jane's Information Group, ISBN 0-7106-1074-2
• Taschenbuch der Panzer Edition 7 (1990), Bernard & Graefe Verlag, ISBN 3-7637-5871-2
• Terry Gander, The Modern British Army (1988), Patrick Stephens Limited, ISBN 0-85059-919-9
• Terry Gander, Britain's Modern Army (1995), Patrick Stephens Limited, ISBN 1-85260-428-X

FV722 Vixen prototype at Bovington Tank Museum

FV721 Fox in Ursel, Belgium

External links

• Fox at Inetres.com
• Fox at Military-vehicle.net, archived from the original on Sep 28, 2007, http://web.archive.org/web/20070928065214/http://www.military-vehicle.net/vcls/fox.htm