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Extracted from article appearing in Jul-Aug85 issue of Armor.
Introduction
In the 40 years since the end of World War II, the United Kingdom (UK) has deployed light forces on operations of various kinds on 74 occasions. These operations involved a variety of force levels, anything from three divisions to less than a battalion, and a wide range of environments from Western Europe to Asia, Central America and the Middle East. Experience has been gained operating in deserts, mountains, jungles-including the concrete city jungles-and the particularly bleak terrain of Korea and the Falkland Islands. The availability of light armoured vehicles (LAV) in 72 of these operations proved invaluable.
These light armour forces employing their classic armoured tactical characteristics of firepower, mobility and protection, were the "Jack of all Trades" of the operations. Mobility and flexibility have been their most important characteristics, while firepower and protection, though useful, have generally been less in demand. In the same way that main battle tanks exploit their characteristics to produce shock action, so LAVs have provided versatility, an asset demonstrated in the way light armour units performed their role and many varied tasks.
Tasks for Light Armour
Advance to contact. The task of light armour in the advance or pursuit is to obtain and pass back accurate and timely information about the enemy and to find and exploit gaps in his defences so that they can be used by the follow-up main force. The Scorpions and Scimitars of 5 Brigade in the Falklands campaign provided such a screen and in the words of the brigade commander, "... it was good to know that we had something with tougher skins than the infantry which could go ahead."
Offensive operations. Light armour units lack the equipment and manpower to mount deliberate attacks against enemy positions organized and deployed in strength. They may, however, carry out quick or diversionary attacks against enemy parachute/heliborne landings, airfields, bridgeheads and other such targets. Again, by way of example, in the Falklands campaign, the light armour provided firepower in a diversionary attack which was mounted to mask the first phase of Tumbledown Mountain.
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