01 May 08. FRES Recce leads the way? Given the perceived impasse on FRES Recce, sources close to BATTLESPACE suggest that a ‘SAXON moment’ is imminent, whereby the MoD’s hand will be forced to look to speed up the introduction of the Scimitar fleet and its variants, given the age of the vehicle. This was the message coming from the Shrivenham Conference today. BAE Systems is well placed to offer its shortened Hägglunds CV 90, the original CV90 design prior to the chassis being stretched to accommodate the Swiss Specifications in the contest against GKN’s Warrior 2000. CV90 has the same CAT X-300 gearbox and suspension as the U.K. Warrior fleet and its Scania V-8 engine could easily be retrofitted as an upgrade for the U.K.’s fleet. As many as 1100 variants could be required for three roles, Overwatch, a turretless version with missile (probably Javelin) defence system to protect the Formation Recce variants up to 6km, a Scout version with the WFLIP turret choice, currently MTIP2/CTA and a Surveillance version with a high-powered C4I suite including radar, UAV datalinks and a comms suite. Much of this technology has been leveraged from the TRACER/FSCS Programme.