Very low profile, I can see why it’s well suited to reconnaissance.
Slightly off-topic, have you ever seen “The Pentagon Wars” about the Bradley fighting vehicle? This having reconnaissance in its name reminds me of that.
The Pentagon Wars
Yeah, great movie. Although to be fair to the French recon vehicles (there's also some others, like the Panhard EBR and the AMX-10 RC, they are really into this concept for some reason), they were built from the ground up for this role, unlike the Bradley which started out as a troop carrier and had the recon role tacked on during its development.
For something ostensibly designed for “sneak and peek”, that giant gun barrel sticking out is going to draw some serious attention. I guess it’s reconnaissance in force, but that barrel is like putting a 30” barrel on a scout rifle: it just seems at odds with the stated purpose.
I think it is meant to be more so reconnaissance in force, but still, I am kind of doubtful as to how well it works in practice. Outside of the French I don't think there's a lot of countries doing something similar.
I also wonder how much ammo the thing can even carry, and if it would be better suited for the role to use modern rockets. A turret with four rockets on each side would have eight shots and still stay nice and low profile, especially if the rocket tubes were 2x2 or 4x1. Maybe that’s the next generation of reconnaissance vehicles, though maybe the whole concept is obsolete in the era of cheap drones. Kamikaze drones and drones spotting for artillery have to be the biggest change in warfare since smart bombs and cruise missiles, if not bigger.
There are actually rocket-based vehicles like that already, although they're typically based on existing armored car or APC chassis, like the Soviet BRDM-2 scout car, the French VAB, and more modern examples like the Stryker
The French replacement for the ERC and AMX-10 RC also ditches the big cannon in favor of a 40mm autocannon and missiles, so it seems they've come to a similar conclusion too, although the whole vehicle is still pretty big (but I guess with modern infrared optics, being small doesn't really do as good of a job at hiding you anymore).
