France’s new armored vehicle comes with a unique new feature, it can move like a crab.
Arquus France has revealed its armored vehicle, Scarabée. The vehicle is designed to perform as a scout in the battles and could be driven out of tight and narrow spaces by locking its front and rear axles, making it move diagonally like a crab.
The new feature lets Scarabée reach an observation point for surveillance without showing its flanks or rear. The new armored vehicle comes with a tight turning radius of just 36 feet, as per the Defense News.
The vehicle weighs 8 tons and can carry four crews, including one driver and three armed persons. It comes with a 4×4 wheel layout and can climb a 60-degree gradient, cross a 2.9-feet-wide ditch, and fording 3-feet deep water obstacles. Scarabée could be delivered to battle scenes using a C-130J Super Hercules or a larger military transport airplane.
Developed by Arquus, Scarabée is the world’s first hybrid-electric drive military vehicle. It packs both a V6 engine and an electric motor. The engine produces 300 horsepower, while the electric motor generates 70-kilowatt output. The double power generation in the Scarabée is sufficient for its weapon systems and allows it to infiltrate through the enemy making the least possible noise.
When on the electric-power mode, Scarabée’s acoustic and infrared signatures turn low, making it difficult to pick up through imaging infrared sensors.
Arquus is marketing the Scarabée unloaded in the absence of weapons. However, its buyers, such as the U.S army or other military’s, could purchase the armed vehicle and load it with the desired armory. The U.S developed CROWS, a common remotely operated weapon station, M320LF, and other systems equipped on Scarabée.
Scarabée for the U.S military would be commissioned in the army’s sneak, and peak reconnaissance missions to quietly monitor enemy forces and gather key insight.
