Ukrainian Army increases troop mobility with first French-made Bastion armored personnel carriers.

Belgian company John Cockerill Defense confirmed in its 2024 Activity Report, released on July 11, 2025, that the French company Arquus has signed a contract for the delivery of sixty-one Bastion armored vehicles to Ukraine. According to the same report, Arquus has already provided eleven Bastions configured for troop transport, with an additional fifty vehicles expected to follow.
Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link

While Paris initially transferred older platforms such as VAB armored carriers and AMX-10RC vehicles, the Bastion offers a more modern and modular solution for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. (Picture source: Army Recognition)

This transaction complements earlier agreements involving VABs transferred from the French Army, which Arquus committed to support and maintain through the establishment of a repair workshop in Ukraine. This also marks the latest phase of a process that began in April 2023 with an initial plan to supply eleven Bastions, which was delayed due to the absence of an intergovernmental agreement between France and Ukraine and restarted in 2024 after the agreement was reached. Ukraine’s experience with the Bastion included hesitation before final acceptance. A transfer of twenty Bastions was proposed in October 2022 but declined by Kyiv over concerns about vulnerability to artillery and anti-tank missiles.

In April 2023, Arquus announced production of eleven Bastions for delivery in July 2024, but delays arose without an official government-to-government framework. By May 2024, CEO Emmanuel Levacher confirmed production was underway, with the potential to scale to one hundred units. Deliveries were ultimately made in mid-2025 after three years of evaluation, during which Ukrainian forces tested several lower-cost alternatives before selecting the Bastion. The company’s adviser, Bertrand Boyard, described Ukraine’s choice as a decision for a genuine entry-level armored vehicle. During the delay, Bastions were diverted to Armenia, with sightings in Georgian transit in November 2023, shortly after French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna announced agreements in Yerevan to supply equipment, including Bastion APCs, Thales Ground Master radars, Mistral short-range air defense systems, and Safran night vision equipment. This reallocation triggered political reactions from Azerbaijan and questions about the scope of French supplies to Armenia.

The Bastion itself is a 12- to 12.5-tonne armored personnel carrier derived from the VLRA 4x4 chassis, designed for modularity and simplified maintenance. It measures approximately 6.3 meters long, 2.3 meters wide, and 2.4 meters high, with a wheelbase of 3.6 meters and ground clearance of 0.33 meters. Depending on the variant, it accommodates a crew of two and between eight and ten passengers. Initial versions used a 180 hp Deutz engine, but subsequent updates included 215 hp, 260 hp, and a 270 hp option introduced in 2019. Performance data lists torque at 820 N·m at 1,200 rpm, a maximum road speed of 110 km/h, and an operational range of 1,000 to 1,400 km. It can handle a 50 percent gradient, a 30 percent side slope, a trench of 0.8 meters, a vertical obstacle of 0.4 meters, and ford up to one meter of water. The vehicle can be transported by a C-130 and is equipped with a V-shaped armored hull offering STANAG 4569 ballistic and mine protection, up to Level 3. Armament options include a 7.62 mm or 12.7 mm machine gun or a 40 mm grenade launcher mounted on a protected ring or remote weapon station. Additional features include run-flat tires, central tire inflation, towing bars, ISO couplings, radios, GPS, cold-weather start systems down to minus 32 °C, air conditioning, a winch, and a rear camera.

Several specialized variants have been developed. The Bastion APC is the standard troop transport and convoy protection vehicle. The Bastion PATSAS, or Patrol SAS, is a lighter 10-tonne version for special forces, transporting five equipped soldiers with a 12.7 mm heavy machine gun and three additional 7.62 mm machine guns. The Fortress, formerly known as the Bastion HM (High Mobility), incorporates a 340 hp engine, independent suspension, and heavier armor, produced in both APC and logistics vehicle configurations. Arquus reported that in 2019, it produced sixty armored hulls at its Garchizy facility and reached the milestone of one thousand combined VLRA and Bastion chassis. The range is marketed as combat-proven and NATO-qualified, with references among police and special forces units, and is emphasized as export-driven, with exports accounting for 42 percent of Arquus’s firm orders in 2019.

The Bastion has been exported widely and has over 500 units produced since its introduction in 2012. Operators include Armenia with fifty vehicles (twenty-four delivered in November 2023 and twenty-six in production), Burkina Faso with an estimated one hundred, Cameroon with at least twenty-three through U.S. funding and additional deliveries, Chad with twenty-two PATSAS, Congo-Brazzaville with two, Ethiopia with twelve reported though some sources dispute delivery, Gabon with five, Ivory Coast with at least nine, Kenya with twelve, Kosovo with three, Mali with at least five and later thirteen more under EU financing, Mauritania and Niger with G5 Sahel deliveries, Saudi Arabia with seventy-one PATSAS delivered in 2016 and used in Yemen, Senegal with thirty-six APCs and two PATSAS plus riot-control versions for the Gendarmerie, Somalia with thirteen listed though some deliveries disputed, Sweden with Bastion HM used by special forces and police, Tanzania with dozens leased from the UN, Togo with thirty, Tunisia with four, Uganda with at least nineteen and possibly thirty-one, and Chile with seven delivered in 2024 to the Carabineros for policing missions. France’s special forces evaluated the PATSAS in 2012, but no domestic orders have been recorded. Bastions were also employed in peacekeeping, such as MINUSMA in Mali, and in multinational exercises like Eagle Partner 24, where U.S. and Armenian forces trained jointly.

The French company Arquus is now part of John Cockerill Defense, which finalized its acquisition on July 2, 2024, after an agreement with Volvo Group and joint involvement from the governments of France and Belgium, each taking a ten percent stake in the company’s capital. John Cockerill Defense announced that it aims for an annual turnover of one billion euros by 2026 and a workforce of two thousand professionals, supported by major financial institutions including Crédit Agricole CIB, BNP Paribas Fortis, and Société Générale Corporate and Investment Banking. The integration of Arquus into JCD allows the group to combine Cockerill turrets and weapon systems with Arquus armored vehicles to offer complete light combat vehicles, such as a VAB Mk.3 fitted with a Cockerill 1030 turret. The portfolio also includes the Arquus Scarabee, Sherpa Light, and Fortress, together with Cockerill turrets ranging from 25 to 120 mm. This industrial merger also supports Franco-Belgian defense initiatives such as the CaMo program, where Belgian and French land forces will use the same Griffon and Jaguar vehicles supplied by Arquus. Arquus also produces the chassis for CAESAR self-propelled howitzers purchased by Belgium and is responsible for maintaining thousands of French Army vehicles.

The Franco-Ukrainian defense relationship is not limited to armored vehicle transfers. Arquus established a VAB repair workshop in Ukraine in September 2023, and broader cooperation was discussed at the France-Ukraine Defense Innovation Forum in Kyiv in July 2025, which gathered over 300 participants, including GICAT and the French Defense Innovation Agency. Discussions emphasized low-cost anti-drone defenses, electronic warfare, resilient navigation technologies such as Safran’s BlackNaute inertial unit, optical and optronic sensors, and artificial intelligence for battlefield data analysis. French industry also explored cooperation in demining projects funded through the Ukraine Support Fund, worth forty-five million euros across three tenders won by five companies. Ukrainian officials and industrial representatives stressed the need for short production cycles and mass production alongside technology transfer, with a dual requirement to match Russian industry’s high resilience and rapid adaptation. Examples include Russian modifications of Shahed drones, which increased speed and altitude while doubling unit cost, underlining the pace of technological iteration. Ukrainian industry, which has developed capacities judged robust and competitive in several areas since 2022, is increasingly integrated with Western partners, including Texelis, Rheinmetall, and Sweden for CV90 production.