FV107 Scimitar Mk.2 - "Sharpening the Blade"

Suggestions - Devs Passed
1
Would you like to see the Scimitar Mk.2 in game?
  • Yes, as a tech tree vehicle
  • Yes, as a premium vehicle
  • Yes, as an event vehicle
  • Yes, as a squadron vehicle
  • No, I would not like to see the Scimitar Mk.2 in game.
0 voters

Scimitar 2 light reconnaissance vehicle - YouTube

Scimitar Mk.2 at Tankfest 2017.

Description

The Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked) CVR(T) Scimitar Mk.2 is an overhaul and upgrade of the venerable FV107 Scimitar reconnaissance vehicle. In 2010, the UK Ministry of Defense called for an Urgent Operational Requirement (UOR) for the modernization of the CVR(T) platform in order to better cope with the terrorist threats faced in Afghanistan, specifically protecting against mines or IEDs and enhancing all-around ballistic protection. The Mk.2 upgrade, which was available for the whole CVR(T) family, was a major overhaul applied after upgrades that had previously been applied in the late 2000’s called Environmental Mitigation 235, which was once again tailored to dealing with Afghanistan; however, the EM235’s main opponent was the climate. Unlike EM235 Scimitar Mk.1s, the Mk.2 uses a new hull that incorporates mine blast protection, mountings for anti-RPG slat armor, and bolted-on add-on armor to increase survivability against threats such as heavy machine gun fire. It also has a front-mounted driver’s camera for visibility in dangerous environments. For better or worse, the revised hull creates a higher profile than the original FV107, though the vehicle is still small. The turret also received slat armor and add-on plating. The upgrades were a large success in Afghanistan, where a Mk.2 and its crew survived an IED blast unharmed. Thanks to the higher profile, the crew’s seats could be changed to hang from the roof, providing better mine protection. Counter-IED equipment similar to the “table” found on the Challenger 2F and TES can also be mounted.

British soldiers from 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards have survived a strike by a large improvised explosive device (IED) in Afghanistan while driving in their upgraded Scimitar Mk2 vehicle. The three soldiers of the Welsh Cavalry were on a routine patrol in Nahr-e Saraj when their Scimitar Mk2 was engulfed in an explosion. All three soldiers walked away from the incident unharmed.

Lieutenant Peter Gordon-Finlayson, Trooper Robert Griffiths and Lance Corporal James Hatton posing for a photo inside their Scimitar Mk.2 in an operating base in Afghanistan. It was hit by an IED blast while on patrol, but the crew emerged unscathed thanks to the improved hull protection.

Protection is not the only department the Scimitar Mk.2 received a capability boost in. The Mk.2 is equipped with the ESPIRE periscopic thermal gunner’s sight that was introduced on some Scimitars in the 90’s, and the driver is also provided with a night vision sight. Despite the extra weight of add-on modules, the Scimitar Mk.2 retains its top-class mobility with a 235 hp Cummins BTA diesel engine and an enhanced drivetrain. It is capable of speeds of 80 km/h on road. The RARDEN cannon, while unstabilized, is still lethal, with a wide suite of ammunition available for different targets, including L21A1 APFSDS, which was qualified by the British Army in 2007. Whether this round was issued to Scimitar Mk.2 is not clear; even provided it was not, the Scimitar would still have access to the L14A3 APDS round from the 90’s, which offers decent anti-armor capability. There are a plethora of other minor upgrades which you can learn about in the linked sources if you want.

Scimitar Mk.2 has been in service since 2011 where it was first deployed in Afghanistan in September. The CVR(T) platform was meant to be replaced by Ajax, but with the troubles that program is experiencing, the UK is still holding some Scimitars in reserve. Expected retirement date is 2023, making the Scimitar’s overall service life over 40 years with the UK alone - other countries still use CVR(T)s acquired from British export ventures.

I believe that the Scimitar Mk.2 would be a capable addition to the British ground forces, especially if given the APFSDS round. The bar armor is optional, meaning players could decide whether to have more protection or more speed. Thermal sights and excellent mobility would make this a great scout vehicle to supplement mid-high tier lineups.

Specifications

FV107 Scimitar Mk.2

Crew: 3 (driver, gunner, commander)

Weight (max): 12.26 t (13.51 tn)

Powerplant: Cummins BTA 5.9 litre diesel engine (235 hp)

Power/weight ratio: 19.17 hp/t (17.39 hp/tn)

Maximum speed: 80 km/h (49.7 mph)

Armament:

  • Main gun: 30mm L21A2 RARDEN (160 rounds)
    • Rate of fire (cyclic): 90 rounds/min
    • Traverse: 360 degree range
    • Elevation: + 35 / - 10 degrees
    • Ammunition types: HE, APSE, APDS, APFSDS
  • Coaxial machine gun: 7.62mm L37A1 (3,000 rounds)

Armor:

  • Aluminum alloy
  • Add-on composite plates
  • Bar armor (removable)

Note: while the armor is unspecified, it is said to be greater than the original FV107, which could stop 14.5mm armor piercing rounds at 200 meters range across the frontal arc. Scimitar Mk.2 is potentially immune to this threat from any distance.

Additional equipment:

  • ESPIRE gunner’s day/night thermal sight
  • Rotating commander’s sight
  • Driver’s night vision sight
  • 8 x 66mm smoke grenade
  • Laser rangefinder

Pictures

The Scimitar Mark 2 has been re-hulled and up-armoured for improved protection from blasts and projectiles, with repositioned foot controls and a revamped fuel system for a better driving experience

Scimitar

The Other Chris on Twitter: "Scimitar Mk.2 in Estonia, posted by NATO 4th January 2021. Minus the bar armour and "spoiler" seen in Afghanistan. Scimitar Mk.2 is a new-build Spartan Mk.2 hull,

Alvis FV107 Scimitar Mk 2 Light Armoured Reconnaissance Vehicle - British Army

Sources

13 Likes
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UK needs more IFVs, so this gets a +1. Hope it gets the dart round as well!

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Fully agree, we’re missing some of the most well known domestic IFVs. Hopefully this and the Scorpion will be added soon!

5 Likes
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Really want this and more of the CVR(T) familiy in the game.

However, some of the information in your description is not entirely correct.

The Scimitar Mk.2 is not an overhaul and upgrade of the previous Scimitar Mk.1 tanks, instead it is newbuild vehicles based on the FV 103 Spartan hull, for the better mine/IED protection as you mentioned, since the bigger volumen inside could make the seats suspended.
Where as the EM235, is an upgrade to the existing Scimitar Mk.1 tank, which include new nightvision, and later on during 2003 in operation Telic, they put more passive protection on the side and underneath the hull, added bar armor and 146 of them got a newer thermal sight.

So Gajin would be able to add 3 distinct versions of the Scimitar to the game.

  • FV 107 Scimitar
  • FV 107 Scimitar 235
  • FV 107 Scimitar Mk2

The reason for seperating the Scimitar & Scimitar 235, is that the newer thermal sight would maybe end up giving it too much of of a difference between having the upgrade on or not.

Source:

Also, if the EM235 was an upgrade, then it would not be able to fit its dozer blade. :)

7 Likes
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Would be great to have more british light vehicles in game above 6.0.

2 Likes
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Frankly I find it amazing that the CVR(T) family of vehicles such as Scimitar, Scorpion and Sabre (FV101 with a FV721 CVR(W) Fox turret fitted) weren’t already suggested. I’d love to see these vehicles implemented as the British tree lacks nimble light tanks such as these. They are important from a historical standpoint as well due to some of the obscure engineering that went into them such as speeding up the outside track instead of braking the inside track to turn and hold the record as the fastest production tanks in the world. I’d personally rather see the Mk.1 Scimitar added as I find it more aesthetically pleasing than the Mk.2 but that’s really just a personal taste thing. There’s potential for the Scorpion 90 as a premium vehicle as well, filling a role similar to that of the Ru.251 Spahpanzer in the German tree.

Overall I would give an arm and a leg to see them implemented as the British tree is sorely lacking capable light tanks in the mid-high ranks and I could see the CVR(T) family vehicles fitting in around 7.0-8.3 quite comfortably. In looking at the proposed tech tree changes coming up they would probably fit in quite nicely foldered as Scorpion (6.7-7.0), Scimitar Mk.1 (7.3-7.7), Sabre (7.3-7.7) either before or after the Swingfire, then maybe the Scimitar Mk.2 at 8.0? The Scorpion 90 would make a nice GE vehicle around 7.0-7.3 imho. This is all just my 2 cents, I’m quite passionate about these vehicles, maybe that’s my patriotism flashing through hahaha, fingers crossed that maybe we’ll see them in the future.

8 Likes
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Completely in favor, it would be wonderful if gaijin added more vehicles that entered service in large numbers and went into combat instead of adding so many prototypes.

2 Likes
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We need this vehicle now if they don’t add it then they are insulting all British and Commonwealth nations I NEED MY MOBILE TEA MOBILES

3 Likes
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Reading this & some of the other posts made has shown me I shoulda wrote a lot more on mine lmao;

I’d love to see more vehicles like this, the “FV703 Ferret Mk2/6”, Badger, Ajax, Rooikat ATGM/SPAMM/35 ZT-3 and so on. There are so many other vehicles that have been used or adopted by the British and its just a shame that we don’t get to see many more of these brilliant vehicles in game. So many of them would fit brilliantly as independent or foldered vehicles, as tech tree or premium variants and would greatly expand the versatility and vehicle type at high/top tier Britain!

1 Like
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Always yes to CVR(T)

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+1 Would really love to see the FV107 in the game. + if the development team thinks about adding this nice CVR(T) family unit, they could add one Scimitar as a Latvian operated one. Similar to how we have South African and other countries vehicles under specific main country tech trees.

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+1

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Timeline is a bit wrong there. EM 235 came a number of years after the Plasan Sasa armour upgrades that were on Op Telic in 2003, and the BGTI thermal imager that was added to the 146 Close Reconnaissance Scimitars that belong to the recce troop of Challenger 2 regiments. BGTI vehicles are the Scimitars with two large sight heads, same as you see on Warrior. BGTI conversion was accepted in to service around 2005. It’s not only a thermal sight but a whole Battlefield Management System with GPS/INS and digital map displays and things where you can ping targeting info to other vehicles.

Increased weight of extra armour, bar armour, Bowman comms, ECM etc. wasn’t too much of an issue on Op Telic in Iraq (because Iraq had pretty decent roads and is mostly quite flat), but severe problems emerged in Afghanistan after British forces deployed to Helmand Province in 2006, where the environment was less forgiving. A UOR was put out to help mitigate these problems through 2007-2008 that ultimately resulted in the EM235 spec with Environmental Mitigation and an uprated 235 horsepower drivetrain, hence the name.

EM235 was installed on the Formation Reconnaissance Scimitars used in Afghanistan, not the 146 fully BGTI-equipped Close Reconnaissance vehicles (CR2 wasn’t deployed to Afghanistan, so no BGTI Scimitars went there). The FR vehicles only have one thermal imaging sight head on the gunner’s side.
3rd generation Catherine MegaPixel thermal imagers were added to a small number of Scimitar 235s from 2009 (initially 16 or so vehicles IIRC), replacing the 1990s ESPIRE thermal imager that baseline Formation Reconnaissance vehicles are equipped with.
The gunner’s sight head on top of the turret looks like the old ESPIRE one but the sight installation inside the turret is based on the gunner’s half of the BGTI system. These are even better imagers than BGTI (which is based on the older, lower resolution, 2nd generation Catherine FC).
Mk.2s came with the Catherine MP since they emerged in 2011.

Significant Scimitar sub-variant/modernisations were:

1970s-1990s
Scimitar - Jaguar petrol engine, NV sight
Mid-to-Late 1990s:
Scimitar SPIRE/ESPIRE - Jaguar petrol engine, thermal sight, LRF.
Later ESPIRE also incorporated TNTLS - a more rudimentary GPS/INS navigation and spotting system that gave coordinates and bearing of lased points. But it wasn’t incorporated in to many Scimitars until they went through the CVR(t) Life Extension Program.
Early-to-Mid 2000s:
Scimitar LEP ESPIRE - Cummins diesel engine, thermal sight, LRF, TNTLS*
and
Scimitar LEP BGTI - Cummins diesel engine, 2nd generation thermal sight and networked BMS, LRF with basic deflecting-reticle FCS*
Late 2000s:
Scimitar LEP EM 235 - ESPIRE spec vehicle with up-rated Cummins engine, final drive from Stormer, driver’s thermal imager. (Later, 3rd generation thermals and BGTI LRF/FCS)*
2010s:
Scimitar Mk.2 - EM 235 spec with a new hull based on Spartan*

But there were also things like LEP Scimitars without upgraded sights

n.b. * Vehicle was fitted with Plasan armour, bar armour, CIED/ECM etc. on operations

7 Likes
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Suggestion passed to the developers for consideration.

6 Likes
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