page_title: Panhard AML
section_title: Saudi Arabia
hierarchical_section_title: Panhard AML / Service history / Middle East / Saudi Arabia
context_page_description: The Panhard AML is a fast, long-ranged, and relatively cheap armoured car with excellent reconnaissance capability. Designed on a small, lightly armoured 4×4 chassis, it weighs an estimated 5.5 tonnes—much lighter than a tank—and is therefore more suited to rapid airborne deployments. Since 1959 AMLs have been marketed on up to five continents; several variants remained in continuous production for half a century. These have been operated by fifty-four national governments and other entities worldwide, seeing regular combat.
  The AML-245 was once regarded as one of the most heavily armed scout vehicles in service, fitted with a low velocity DEFA D921 90 mm rifled cannon firing conventional high explosive and high explosive anti-tank shells, or a 60 mm breech loading mortar with 53 rounds and dual 7.5mm MAS AA-52 NF-1 machine guns with 3,800 rounds, all mounted coaxially in the turret. An AML is capable of destroying targets at 1,500 meters with its D921 main gun. In this configuration it is considered a match for second-line and older main battle tanks.
  AMLs have appeared most prominently in Angola, Iraq, and Chad, as well as in the Lebanese Civil War between 1975 and 1990.
context_section_description: In 1964, the Royal Saudi Army issued a requirement for an armoured car proven in desert warfare and equipped with a large semi-automatic cannon. Bids were accepted from three companies—Alvis, Cadillac Gage, and Panhard—which offered the Saladin, V-100 Commando, and AML, respectively, but the debate over which of the three to adopt was hamstrung by political considerations early on. Saudi Arabia remained inhibited from seeking American assistance in devising suitable defence programmes by the criticism and hostility of other Arab states. Under these circumstances, only arms transactions with French or British firms could be entertained. Despite longstanding diplomatic contacts, the French presence in Riyadh was rather limited compared to that of the United Kingdom, and the latter was in a better position to provide long-term logistical support for armoured cars to the Saudi military. Alvis was initially awarded a contract for 83 Saladins with a ten-year option on spare parts. Final negotiations for the delivery of the Saladins were underway when Sultan bin Abdulaziz abruptly cancelled the purchase in favour of Panhard.
  The $95 million Panhard deal proved instrumental in breaking existing preconceptions that the Arabian arms market was well protected by the UK. Gaullist circles heralded it as a major business and political success. In an interview in Beirut, Sultan bin Abdulaziz merely asserted that AMLs were selected as part of King Faisal's policy to strengthen the army with a greater infusion of modern arms. Saudi Army officials had preferred the heavier Saladin and appreciated its worthiness in desert conditions, but conceded the AML-90 was much cheaper. Panhard undertook the order amid much protest by pro-Israel lobbyists in France, who urged restraint in shipping arms to Arab bloc states likely to use them against Tel-Aviv. The sale was also challenged as a violation of Charles de Gaulle's Middle Eastern embargo, although the French government insisted it did not classify armoured scout cars as the same "heavy war materiel" covered by sanctions.
  Saudi AML-90s of the 20th Armoured Brigade were blooded near Daraa during the Yom Kippur War, having been airlifted to assist its Syrian defenders in Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft loaned from Iran. The airlift was carried out on October 14, 1973; six Iranian C-130s were needed to convey the vehicles and about 2,000 motorised infantrymen from Saudi Arabia to Syria. AML crews were generally assigned to static guard duty, patrolling the Damascus-Daraa road and keeping lines of communications clear between the multinational Arab forces. At least one AML-90 was captured by the Golani Brigade, likely while attempting to reconnoiter an IDF position after dark. The captured vehicle was later displayed by Israeli officials to the international press as proof of direct Saudi military involvement in the Syrian war effort.
  On October 16, the 7th Brigade, 71st Tank Battalion of the IDF's 36th Armoured Division reported clashing with the Saudi armoured cars as they performed reconnaissance for Iraqi forces near Tel Antar. The Saudis quickly disengaged. At some point between this skirmish and the evening of October 17, all the Saudi AMLs—almost a composite light armoured battalion—launched an unsuccessful attack on IDF positions at the village of Tel Merai. Thereafter the remaining armoured cars and their crews were integrated with the Jordanian 40th Armoured Brigade. On October 19, they participated in a joint offensive with that unit but were halted by accurate tank fire from the IDF's 17th Reserve Armour Brigade and forced to retreat.
  The Israelis claimed to have destroyed most of the Saudi AMLs at Tel Merai. Saudi accounts acknowledge the loss of only 4 AMLs; furthermore, the Saudis claimed to have knocked out 5 Israeli tanks and damaged 5 more.
  Saudi Arabia ordered between 200 and 220 AMLs from France in 1968, with deliveries completed by 1970. Some sources have claimed a second order was placed in 1978 for another 250. The Saudi Army has since retired much of its Panhard fleet and 
caption: Saudi AML-90s and AML-60s donated to the Niger Armed Forces during Operation Desert Shield.[61]
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