VAB

Record

Conflict relevance

This is the catalogue's single record for this system. It is relevant to the module below; each module's Force Atlas shows how it is used there.

Operators

France: The standard French infantry carrier throughout Serval and Barkhane; withdrawn as the intervention ended and as the Griffon replaced the type in French service.

Battlefield role

The French intervention's standard troop carrier: VABs moved infantry across the vast distances of Serval's dash north and Barkhane's corridor patrols, where protection against mines and ambush mattered more than firepower.

Strengths

Light, amphibious by design and cheap to keep running over the very long road distances of the Sahel; carried a full section with a machine gun, which was enough where the adversary had no armour.

Limitations

An ageing design with limited mine protection by MRAP standards, which the Ultima up-armouring only partly addressed; several French fatalities in Barkhane came from IED strikes on light vehicles. Its relevance to the module is historical — it left with the French withdrawal in 2022.

Visual identification

A four-wheeled, slab-sided box with a sloping front, a small forward cab with two windscreens and, on the Ultima, added side armour and a remote weapon station.

Documented conflict use

Documented across Serval's advance to Gao and Timbuktu in January–February 2013 and in Barkhane's convoy and patrol operations through 2022; IED strikes on the type are part of the intervention's published casualty record. Historical only.

Branch & service operators

• Operation Barkhane Historically associated
• Operation Serval Historically associated