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CVR(T) Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance Tracked

Alvis produced a substantial part of the British Army's tank fleet and has maintained high export levels. Its family of combat vehicles includes the Scorpion, Spartan, Sultan, Samson and Scimitar tanks and also the Saracen armoured personnel carrier and the Saladin armored vehicle. The ageing Scorpion and Scimitar vehicles did not stand out as efficient machines in the Gulf and Bosnian conflicts.

In the early 1960s, the British defence industry needed a fast and light armored vehicle that could be used for reconnaissance and infantry support purposes. The goal was, among other things, to replace the aging vehicles such as the Saladin. Whether the new vehicle should be a wheeled, or a tracked vehicle was initially unclear, and so there emerged at that time two families, since both variants had both advantages and disadvantages. One was the CVR(T) Scorpion family tracked vehicles, and the other was the CVR(W) Fox family with a wheel chassis. After extensive test with different prototypes of such vehicles, the production of two thousand tracked of the the ALVIS "Scorpion" FV 101 began in the spring of 1970. On the basis of the Scorpion, different vehicle models for different tasks were begun.

The Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked) (CVR(T)) fleet was subject to many improvements, a number of which are ongoing, including a major programme to convert the vehicles from petrol to diesel. This will reduce whole life costs. Additionally, studies are in place to assess the viability of introducing Battle Group Thermal Imagers and the BOWMAN communications system to the vehicle.

By 2004 the average age of the British Army fleet for the FV430, CVR(T) and Saxon Light Armoured Vehicles was:

At that time an endorsed in-service date for the Future Rapid Effect System (FRES), and the numbers and types of vehicles to be procured as part of the FRES programme, would not be determined until the assessment phase of the programme has been completed.

FV101 "Scorpion" Reconnaissance and infantry support vehicle with 76 mm gun	FV102 "Striker" Anti-tank with Swingfire anti-tank missiles	FV103 "Spartan" armored personnel carrier (APC)
FV104 "Samaritan" Ambulance	FV105 "Sultan" Command post and guide tanks	FV 106 Samson Armored recovery vehicle for the CVR(T) vehicles
FV 107 Scimitar Reconnaissance and infantry support with 30 mm Rarden rapid fire Cannon	"Scorpion 90" Export only, with a Belgian Cockerill 90 mm cannon (Mk3M-A1)'	Sabre Reconnaissance and infantry support with 30 mm Rarden rapid-fire Cannon
The FV 4333 "Stormer" was developed to provide new and more powerful weapons systems to a new platform, and thus the "Stormer-family" was born in the early 1980s which carries the designation FV 4333. To achieve a higher usable space and payload capacity, the vehicle in addition to various small changes to a Castor 6 was expanded and fitted with a wire-capable engine. The length of the vehicle has been increased from 4, 36 m 27, 5 m.FV 4333
FV4333 "Stormer HVM (High velocity missile) Air defence system for the close-range with the SMS Starstreak high velocity missile (HVM) system	FV4333 "Stormer TRV (Troop Recce vehicle) Reconnaissance, supply, and armored personnel carrier	FV4333 "Shielder" VLSMS (Vehicle launched scatterable mine system)