FV601 Saladin

A six-wheeled reconnaissance car

Saladin was a six-wheeled armored reconnaissance car with an enclosed cannon turret, not a small machine-gun scout car. The National Army Museum identifies its Mark 2 as an Alvis vehicle and records British service for its example from 1959 through 1974. That combination of wheeled mobility, a three-person fighting crew, and a 76 mm gun placed Saladin between the lighter scout-car tradition and tracked fighting vehicles, while its mission remained reconnaissance rather than tank replacement. ²

Three crew members and a 76 mm gun

The National Army Museum’s Mark 2 has a welded hull and turret, a three-person crew and a 76 mm L5A1 gun, backed by two machine guns. Its ammunition stowage held 43 rounds for the main weapon. Periscopes allowed observation under armor. These details describe a complete fighting arrangement: the crew had to drive, observe and serve the gun within the same vehicle, with no separate passenger section for an infantry squad. ²

The museum records a wading depth of about 3.5 feet without preparation. That is a shallow-water mobility figure, not an amphibious capability. It also distinguishes average cross-country and road speeds from maximum road speed. A maximum on a suitable road says little about the pace at which a crew can observe, navigate and maintain its place in a patrol over rough ground. ²

An individual British record and Sri Lankan training

The museum’s own vehicle was built in September 1958. Between 1959 and 1974 its recorded users included the Royal Tank Regiment, 9th/12th Lancers, Queen’s Dragoon Guards, Royal Armoured Corps training units and REME workshops. That sequence follows one chassis through operational, training and maintenance settings. It is not a list of units that necessarily used every Saladin version. ²

Sri Lanka’s Armoured Corps archive records new Saladins being taken from Colombo harbor to Rock House Camp in August 1979 for the 1st Reconnaissance Regiment. Other captions place Saladin firing at Vedithaltheevu, Mannar, during that year’s annual range work. The photographs connect the imported vehicle with the practical work of training crews to use its gun, rather than merely adding a country name to an operator list. ³

The same archive shows cross-country training and a Saladin leaving a landing craft. The latter demonstrates a means of moving an armored car by water and landing it ashore. It should not be confused with the vehicle propelling itself afloat. Transport methods, fording limits and an actual swimming capability are separate characteristics. ³

A National Army Museum photograph records a Saladin patrolling Aden during rioting in 1967. It survives in an album assembled by Private M. Arnold of the 3rd Battalion, Royal Anglian Regiment, covering service from October 1966 to May 1967. The image places the armored car within the urban security environment encountered by British infantry there. The album's ownership identifies the photographer's military setting, however, not necessarily the regiment operating the car; that distinction prevents an infantryman's collection from becoming a false armored-unit attribution. ⁵

A Saladin turret on an M113

Australian use produced a different branch of the story. From 1967, the Australian Army developed a fire-support vehicle by fitting a Saladin turret to an M113A1. The gun installation was reused, but the chassis and mobility system were now those of a tracked carrier. Calling that vehicle simply a Saladin would erase the principal feature of the conversion. ⁴

A later Australian fire-support vehicle using a Scorpion turret entered service in 1976 and was subsequently designated the medium reconnaissance vehicle. Both that vehicle and the earlier Saladin-turret version helped reintroduce full-caliber gunnery to reserve armored units. The succession illustrates how a useful turret could have a service life distinct from its original armored-car chassis, without making the M113 conversion a normal Saladin production mark. ⁴

Sri Lanka's regimental history records six additional Saladins arriving in 1991 alongside six Saracen personnel carriers. It also describes Stalwart vehicles supporting ammunition transport. The account places the gun cars within a mixed organization with distinct fighting, troop-carrying and supply vehicles, rather than a homogeneous fleet. These are recorded receipts, not a count of all serviceable Saladins at any subsequent date. ⁶

The gun and the chassis followed different paths

Saladin’s history is therefore more than a specification for a six-wheeled gun car. Sri Lankan training retained the wheeled vehicle as a whole, while Australia transferred its gun turret to a tracked platform. These are two different forms of service continuity. One preserved the original combination; the other selected a component for a new vehicle and a different equipment program. ^{3, 4}

Sources and further reading

1. The Tank Museum, Tank Chat 105: Saladin, written introduction (1 October 2020)
2. National Army Museum, Saladin Mk 2 6x6 armoured car, 1958
3. Sri Lanka Army Armoured Corps, Pictorial History
4. Australian Army, 50 years service for M113, updated 16 November 2015 (archived)
5. National Army Museum, Saladin patrol photograph, Aden, 1967
6. Sri Lanka Armoured Corps, 1st Reconnaissance Regiment history

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