Véhicule armée de Terre

A reference in France and internationally

Today, Arquus, the French army’s historical partner, is closely associated with the Scorpion programme, the backbone of French army renewal. We also have a worldwide reputation with customers on each continent.

French army supplier

For more than a century, we have been the main supplier of French army vehicles, in partnership with the DGA defense procurement agency and the French Ministry of the Defense. A long shared history has enabled us to acquire solid experience of armed conflict and provide combat-proven vehicles and equipment.

Emblematic vehicles

It all started in 1917, when the FT 17 - the first mass-produced tank - took part in the great battles of World War I and made an effective contribution to victory.

Since then, our Group has been closely associated with all the campaigns and operations conducted by the French army. Panhard, for example, left its mark on many generations with its reconnaissance and scout vehicles, such as the emblematic AMD 178 which participated in the French campaign.

The VAB, a major commercial success


Our know-how is internationally recognised with more than 30,000 Arquus army vehicles in service worldwide and a major commercial success - the VAB. This 13-tonne troop transport vehicle - of which 5,000 were initially sold to more than 25 countries - remains, after thirty years on the market, one of the leading armored vehicles deployed by armies during operations.

The VAB was used during recent missions such as the Serval operation in Mali (2013-2014), the Sangaris operation in the Central African Republic (2013-2016) and, since 2014, the Barkhane operation in the Sahel.

Scorpion, the future of the French army

The Scorpion vehicle-fleet modernisation programme has three distinct complementary objectives:

  •  replace aging and low-interoperability vehicles and equipment,
  •  optimise contact capacities with implementation of the SICS (Scorpion Combat Information System), 
  •  rationalise armored vehicle fleets with pooled vehicles and equipment.

A prominent place in the Scorpion programme


As a member of the EMBR industrial consortium, we deliver a good third of the services and vehicles concerned, alongside Thales and Nexter Systems.

We play an important role in the Scorpion programme with the development of the Griffon multi-role armored vehicle and the Jaguar armored reconnaissance and combat vehicle.

The French army’s aim is to be able to deploy its first Scorpion operating group, GTIA (combined arms tactical group) in 2021 and the first Scorpion brigade in 2023.

A laboratory of innovations

Scorpion embodies major technological change and, as such, is a tremendous laboratory of innovation (remote weapon systems, facilitation of maintenance operations, support and ownership cost control, etc.).