The Panhard AML (Auto Mitrailleuse Légère, or "Light Machine Gun Car")[3] is an armoured car with reconnaissance capability.[8] Designed by Panhard on a lightly armoured 4×4 chassis, it weighs an estimated 5.5 tonnes, and is thus suitable for airborne deployment.[9] Since 1959, AMLs have been marketed on up to five continents; several variants remained in continuous production for half a century.[10] These have been operated by fifty-four national governments and other entities worldwide, seeing regular combat.[11]
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 (3.54 in) rifled cannon firing conventional high explosive and high explosive anti-tank shells, or a 60 mm (2.36 in) 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.[9] 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.[12][13]
^ abCullen, Tony; Drury, Ian; Bishop, Chris (1988). The Encyclopedia of World Military Weapons (1988 ed.). Greenville: Crescent Publications. pp. 68–70. ISBN978-0-517-65341-8.
^Collet, Andre (1989). Armements: mutation, réglementation, production, commerce. Paris: Économica. p. 55. ISBN978-2717816808.
^ abDavid Jordan (2005). The History of the French Foreign Legion: From 1831 to Present Day (2005 ed.). Amber Books Ltd. pp. 181–185. ISBN978-1-59228-768-0.
^Henk, Daniel (2006). South Africa's armaments industry: continuity and change after a decade of majority rule (2006 ed.). University Press America. p. 164. ISBN978-0-7618-3482-3.
^Based on adding together all operators in the map and those listed below.
^Christopher F. Foss (1977). The illustrated encyclopedia of the world's tanks and fighting vehicles: a technical directory of major combat vehicles from World War I to the present day (1977 ed.). Chartwell Books. p. 93. ISBN978-0-89009-145-6.
^Tokarev, Andrei; Shubin, Gennady (2011). Bush War: The Road to Cuito Cuanavale: Soviet Soldiers' Accounts of the Angolan War (2011 ed.). Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd. pp. 128–130. ISBN978-1-4314-0185-7.