On December 18, 2020, Nexter, Thales and Arquus will proudly celebrate the presentation of the 128th GRIFFON planned for 2020 to the French Armaments Delegation (DGA) as part of the Temporary Company Grouping (GME) EBMR (Engins Blindés Multi-Rôles).
Arquus released a statement on Wednesday in which he said: “As part of the SCORPION program and despite an unprecedented health crisis that profoundly affected production, the three manufacturers were able to rise to the challenge and achieve their contractual goals. “
After this step, the last GRIFFONs must be subjected to the inspection processes carried out by the DGA’s quality department. The vehicles are then transported to the Canjuers site where the army will take them into account. Then the DGA will officially receive them. To date, 90 GRIFFON have completed this route and added to the 92 GRIFFON that were delivered in 2019. From January 2021, the last vehicles that left the production line in December will be included in the regiments and, with the due delay, made up for the health crisis very early in 2021.
As of March 2020, Covid-19 has actually severely disrupted the industrial organization of the program. The Roanne site, where the GRIFFON and JAGUAR will be assembled, had to cease operations from March 20-30 to allow the installation of a structure adapted to resume operations under maximum safety conditions. Since then, two teams have worked on the lines in shifts of eight consecutive hours (2 × 8) to ensure that the lines are operational on those 16-hour days. The members of the GME were closely connected to their government contacts and, after consulting their suppliers, quickly revised the original schedule: The goals for 2020 were retained for GRIFFON; The first deliveries from JAGUAR have been postponed to April 2021. and this while maintaining the number of deliveries at the end of 2021.
The year 2020 was marked by the passing of several important milestones for the GME. In September, the DGA announced the third conditional tranche of the EBMR contract that the second vehicle batch (271 GRIFFON and 42 JAGUAR by 2023) could go into production. The GRIFFON Command Post Vehicle (EPC) was qualified in November. Among the 128 GRIFFONs from 2020, 35 examples of this new variant were presented to the administration, an additional difficulty that the EPC teams have overcome. Finally, the new generation T1 remote-controlled turret that will arm the GRIFFONs has also been qualified by the DGA.
Nexter, Arquus and Thales would like to acknowledge the exceptional commitment of their teams. Their sense of duty and creativity have enabled them to meet the expectations of the French army and its fighters as much as possible, while severely limiting the effects of the health crisis.
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