La France gave on Saturday 23 January nine ERC-90 Sagaie to the Chadian army, during an official ceremony in N’Djamena, where the Barkhane force is installed. “These machines were supplied with the spare parts necessary for their maintenance, including additional engines, as well as ammunition”, explains the French Embassy in Chad, which specifies that reconditioning was necessary. Twelve Chadian crews must be trained by the French Elements in Gabon (EFG) by June 2021, before possible deployments.
Developed in the 1970s, these six-wheel-drive tanks are equipped with a 90mm cannon and two 7.62mm heavy machine guns, and can reach 80 to 90 km / h. Under their new colors, they must officially participate in the fight against terrorism in the Sahel, an environment for which they were designed from the start.
“It would be a stroke of luck to hit the mark”
But, opposite, the jihadists line up brand new 4x4s, bought with money from Gulf countries (Qatar and Saudi Arabia in the lead), which can reach 130 km / h on the tracks thanks to engines V10: They are elusive targets for an armored vehicle. “Under these conditions, it would be a stroke of luck to hit the mark,” a French tanker explained to us during a report in Chad and Niger in 2017. The soldiers of Operation Barkhane used these tanks mainly for the protection of bases and demonstrate their strength.
For Paris, this donation of questionable utility is a godsend. Withdrawal from armored service Sagaie has been scheduled for a long time, as they are being replaced by Jaguars under the Scorpion program.
Their repatriation to France would have been expensive, as well as their dismantling … In short, despite the goodwill displayed, there is hardly anything except in the possible peacekeeping missions in which the Chadian army will participate, or for demonstrations of force of Chadian power, that France can hope for a real reuse of its tanks.
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