French Army Conducts Griffon VBMR Boarding Tests Aboard PHA Mistral
The French Army Technical Section (STAT) carried out boarding tests of a prototype Griffon multi-role armored vehicle (VBMR) on board the amphibious helicopter carrier (PHA) Mistral on Sept. 21.
These are the first tests of this nature aboard a PHA.
The VBMR Griffon prototype boarded the Mistral through the vessel’s side door, the objective being to verify the vehicle’s interoperability with an amphibious ship moored to a quay without Ro-Ro facility. These tests complement those of November 2019 which enabled the validation of the Griffon’s boarding capabilities on board standard amphibious landing craft (EDA-S) and rapid amphibious landing craft (EDA-R).
Le 21 septembre, la section technique de l’@armeedeterre a effectué des tests d’embarquement d’un prototype de véhicule blindé à bord du PHA Mistral.Depuis un PHA, les Griffon participeront au débarquement amphibie des troupes lors de leur déploiement.
https://t.co/ULm53PRqg9 pic.twitter.com/VdyCeZGCPG — Marine nationale (@MarineNationale) October 3, 2020
The VBMR Griffon vehicles are intended to succeed the French Army’s VAB (armored forward vehicle) vehicles in their troop transport function. There are also variants of the vehicle configured as command post, artillery fire observation, and medical vehicles.
From a PHA, the vehicles can participate in the amphibious landing of troops during deployments in theaters of operation.