page_title: Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked)
section_title: Scorpion
hierarchical_section_title: Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked) / Variants / Scorpion
caption_attribution_description: ID: DNST9207965 Service Depicted: Other Service Command Shown: D0302 A Scorpion reconnaissance vehicle of the 7th Brigade Royal Scots, 1st United Kingdom Armored Division, advances east into Kuwait from southern Iraq during Operation Desert Storm.
context_page_description: The Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked) —or CVR—is a family of armoured fighting vehicles s in service with the British Army and others throughout the world. They are small, highly mobile, air-transportable armoured vehicles designed to replace the Alvis Saladin armoured car.
  Designed by Alvis in the 1960s, the CVR family includes Scorpion and Scimitar light reconnaissance tanks, Spartan armoured personnel carriers s, Sultan command and control vehicle, Samaritan armoured ambulance, Striker anti–tank guided missile vehicle and Samson armoured recovery vehicle. All members of the CVR family were designed to share common automotive components and suspension; aluminium armour was selected to keep the weight down. By 1996, more than 3,500 had been built for British Army use and export.
  Scorpion and Striker have now been withdrawn from British Army service. Scimitar and Spartan were replaced by Ajax and briefly the Panther before the latter's sale in 2018.
context_section_description: The FV101 Scorpion was originally developed to meet a British Army requirement for the Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked). Scorpion was accepted by the British Army in May 1970, with a contract for 275, which later rose to 313 vehicles. Main armament consisted of a low velocity 76mm main gun with a coaxial 7.62 mm GPMG and multi-barrelled smoke grenade dischargers. The first production vehicles were completed in 1972. The first British regiment to be equipped with the Scorpion was the Blues and Royals of the Household Cavalry in 1973.
  In November 1981, the RAF Regiment took delivery of the first of 184 Scorpions and other variants of CVR(T). These were to be used for airfield defence and served at RAF bases in the United Kingdom, Germany and Cyprus. The 76mm gun was ideal for the role, especially the canister round, which could be used on base against attacking personnel whilst minimising the risk to aircraft and infrastructure due to its short range. The RAF Regiment tranche of vehicles is understood to have originally been part of an order for Iran, but which were not delivered following the revolution that overthrew the Shah. The vehicles differed by having no wading equipment, and the vehicle commander's cupola on the RAF Regiment Spartan was a different design to that of British Army variants. British Scorpions were withdrawn from service in 1995, principally because of the toxicity hazard in the crew compartment caused when the main armament was fired. In addition, RAF Bomb Disposal (EOD) teams used Scimitar and Spartan. Their protection and mobility allowed the teams to move around airfields that had unexploded ordnance (UXO) and CBRN contamination. The 30mm main armament on the Scimitar could be used to detonate the UXO or to crack the case of a bomb to allow the contents to drain or to deflagrate.
caption: Scorpion advancing across the desert during the first Gulf War.
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