ALM's lorries went mostly to France's colonies, and the TH4 of 1954 was built for the growing demand for vehicles that could cross the Sahara; the end of the Algerian war took that market away and sent the firm to Saint-Nazaire. The VLRA that followed in 1967 carried two 180-litre fuel tanks, jerrycans and a 200-litre drinking-water tank, and shared 80 per cent of its parts across the range; ACMAT aimed it at African and Asian armies that could not afford costlier vehicles.
French forces used it in Djibouti, Chad, the Central African Republic and, last, the Sahel on Barkhane. African armies bought it directly — Mali, Chad, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Morocco among the operators Wikipedia lists — and then bought the ALTV pick-up and the Bastion: Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger and Togo took ALTVs, and Bastions went to Chad, Togo, Senegal, Burkina Faso and, through the United States, to Uganda, Kenya, Cameroon and Mali.
Sahara and the colonies (1954–1966)
1 VEHICLE IN THIS CHAPTERThe TH4 for Saharan exploration, and ALM's trucks for colonial buyers until Algerian independence.
Registry records · chapter 1
French forces in Africa (1967–1992)
4 VEHICLES IN THIS CHAPTERDjibouti in 1971; Chad on Manta (1983–84) and Épervier (from 1986); the Central African Republic in 1992.
Registry records · chapter 2
African armies (1967– )
6 VEHICLES IN THIS CHAPTERVLRAs in Mali, Chad, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Botswana; ALTVs to twelve African armies between 2009 and 2014; Bastions across the Sahel from 2012.
Registry records · chapter 3
Barkhane and the Saharan berm (2014–2021)
2 VEHICLES IN THIS CHAPTERThe VLRA's last French deployment on Barkhane in the Sahel, and 300 VLRA 2 for Morocco's Saharan berm in 2021.
Registry records · chapter 4
Sources
- Arquus Saint-Nazaire — Arquus
- Acmat VLRA — une brève histoire d'ALM-Acmat — Véhicules hors série (Nicolas Bergon), from ACMAT literature
- ACMAT — Wikipedia
- ACMAT VLRA — Wikipedia
- VLRA 1 TPK — Army Recognition
- SS.11 VLRA platoon of the 61st armoured squadron, Infanterie de Marine, Djibouti, 1971 — Wikimedia Commons
- 11e RAMa with a VLRA, Central African Republic, 1992 — Wikimedia Commons
- ACMAT VLRA TPK 4.20 canon de 20 mm — Milinfo
- ACMAT VLRA des Forces Spéciales (Jérôme Hadacek) — Milinfo
- L'armée marocaine a reçu 300 camions de type VLRA — Barlamane
- ACMAT AVTL — Wikipedia
- ACMAT Bastion — Wikipedia
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