VAB
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The Véhicule de l'avant blindé (lit. Armoured Forward Vehicle) or VAB is the APC of the French Army since 1976.
In Team Yankee[edit]
What a weirdo.
The VAB plays as a hybrid between a M113 and a BTR. It carries up to 3 passengers and has amphibious. Unlike the British and West German APCs, this one can actually penetrate soft skinned armor with its M2 Browning! Frontal armour two means that heavy machine guns and NATO autocannons will actually have some trouble getting through: not that they're immune, but it will take more shots to destroy one VAB. The VAB is also incredibly vulnerable to artillery, with top armor 0. Consider it a blessing if your VABs are targeted by artillery though: that's one less salvo directed at your infantry.
Interestingly, the VAB has infrared... but only on the Milan when mounted. After all, why would machine gunners need to see where they're shooting?
As always, use your VABs as suicide units to block passage for enemy units, protecting objectives, charging at vulnerable vehicles, or other menial tasks you don't want to waste combat troops on (after dismounting, of course). In Team Yankee, APCs are far less important than the men they carry.
IRL[edit]
The VAB is reasonably new at the time of Team Yankee, having been introduced in 1974 and still in service in 2022, though it is slowly being replaced by the Griffon. Although only armored against small arms and shrapnel, it incorporates NBC protection and amphibious operation with a two man crew and capacity for ten passengers. Renault has continuously improved on the design with increasingly heavy armor (particularly against IEDs), new engine/transmission offerings, a 6x6 configuration, and a large family of variants.
The VAB has been exported throughout the Middle East and Africa - precisely the parts of the world where France has traditionally sold many of its arms, meaning that in several conflicts French gear has appeared on both sides...
| French Forces in Team Yankee | |
|---|---|
| Tanks: | AMX-30 |
| Transports: | AMX-10P- VAB |
| Troops: | Section d'infanterie/Chasseurs - Milan Section Antichar |
| Artillery: | AMX Auf1 |
| Anti-Aircraft: | AMX-13 DCA - AMX Roland |
| Tank Hunters: | VAB Mephisto |
| Recon: | AMX-10 RC - AMX-10P VOA |
| Aircraft: | Gazelle HOT - Gazelle 20mm - Mirage 5 |