FV101 Scorpion

The FV101 Scorpion was a vehicle which served for the British army during 1973 – 1994. It served in several wars which the British army fought in including the Falklands War and The First Gulf War. The armoured vehicle is part of the CVR(T) family of 7 vehicles including latest of the family the FV107 Scimitar which is still in service.

Scorpion CVR(T)

Armaments & armour

Primary: L23A1 Gun, 76 mm, stowed 42 rounds. (Rate of fire or ROF: 6 RPM) Can fire high explosive (HE), smoke, canister and HESH rounds.

Range: 2200 meters

Angles and degrees: 35º elevation – 10º depression – 360º transverse

Secondary: 7.62 mm coaxial machine gun (3,000 rounds)

Export versions

Primary: Mk3 M-A1 90mm – Scorpion 90

Protection against 12.7 mm rounds, all sides.

Other information

The vehicle has an operational range of 470 miles has a speed of 47 miles per hour and is powered by a diesel Cummins BTA 5.9 litre 190 hp (140 kW) engine though originally was powered by a Jaguar J60 4.2 litre petrol engine. – Which subsequently gives the vehicle a power to weight ratio of 22.92 hp/tonne weighing in at 8 tonnes; it also has a torsion-bar suspension system in place.

The vehicle was tested in several countries for weather conditioning experiments to which end it saw Abu Dhabi, Australia, Canada and Norway. It was originally developed by Alvis by the request of the British army to meet a service requirement called the CVR(T) or Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked) in 1967. Once it completed its weather trials in these countries it was then added into the British army in May 1970. In total 3,000 of these vehicles were created for British forces and exports markets by Alvis. However export versions were different from British army armoured vehicles as the export version or “Scorpion 90” had a 90 mm gun instead of the 76 mm caliber gun used in British versions.

In 1974 Scorpions were deployed to protect or deter terrorist threats at Heathrow Airport.

Users