Alvis Vehicles Saxon APC (UK) KEY RECOGNITION FEATURES • Box-shaped hull with front sloping to rear and driver's position offset to right, horizontal louvres on front and left side of hull, single door in right side of hull and twin doors rear • Flat roof with commander's fixed cupola on forward part with rear-opening hatch, vision block in each side and 7.62mm MG on external DISA mount • Two large road wheels each side with stowage bins on left side of hull and wire stowage box on roof (Note: left-hand drive model available; export vehicles have door in left side of hull)
SPECIFICATIONS Crew: Configuration: Armament: Ammunition: Length: Width: Height: Ground clearance: Wheelbase: Weight, combat: Weight, empty: Power-to-weight ratio: Engine:
2+8 (or 10) 4x4 1 x 7.62mm MG 1,000 x 7.62mm 5.169m 2.489m 2.628m (commander's cupola) 0.41m (hull), 0.29m (axles) 3.073m 11,660kg 9,940kg 14.06bhp/tonne Bedford 500 6-cylinder diesel developing 164bhp at 2,800rpm Maximum road speed: 96km/hr Maximum road range: 480km Fuel capacity: 153 lit Fording: 1.12m 0.41m Vertical obstacle: Trench: Not applicable 60% Gradient: Side slope: 30% Armour: Classified Armour type: Steel NBC system: None Night vision equipment: None
it was adopted by the British Army for infantry battalions based in UK but deployed to Germany in wartime. Driver sits front left or front right, engine in lower part of hull and troop compartment extending right to rear. Troops on bench seats down both sides and enter via side doors or two doors at rear. Commander has fixed cupola or turret with single or 7.62mm twin MGs. Optional equipment includes air-conditioning system, frontmounted winch, heater, grenade launchers, barricade remover, searchlights, front-mounted winch and replacement of Bedford engine by Perkins T6.3544 diesel developing 195hp at 2,500rpm. Latest production vehicles for the British Army are powered by a Cummins 6BT 5.91 litre turbocharged 6-cylinder diesel engine developing 160hp coupled to a fully automatic transmission. By late 1995 total production of the Saxon APC amounted to almost 800 vehicles with the British Army being largest customer. Late production models for British Army are called Saxon Patrol and were for Northern Ireland. Some British Army Saxon APCs have one-man 7.62mm machine gun turret fitted.
VARIANTS Command vehicle - fitted with additional communications equipment. Ambulance - In service with British Army. Recovery - in service with British Army, has winch with capacity of 16 tonnes. Incident control vehicle - prototype only for IS applications. Water cannon - prototype only.
DEVELOPMENT Saxon (4x4) was developed as a private venture by GK Defence, (which late in 1998 merged with Alvis Vehicles) first prototype completed in 1976 and first production vehicles in 1976. In 1983
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STATUS Production complete. In service with Bahrain, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Nigeria, Oman, United Arab Emirates and UK.
