SERVICE HISTORY
THE FV603 SARACEN PARTICIPATED IN MILITARY AND CIVIL OPERATIONS AROUND THE WORLD AND IS STILL IN SERVICE IN SOME COUNTRIES TODAY
Although it was replaced in the early 1960s by the tracked FV432 armoured personnel carrier, the 20-year production run of the FV603 Saracen continued until 1972. A total of 1,838 vehicles were completed. The FV603 has remained active in the arsenals of Middle Eastern and Asian countries into the 21st century and served with the British Army in support and civil defence roles throughout the 1980s. It was first deployed with British troops during the 1948-1960 ‘Malayan Emergency’, a protracted anti-communist guerrilla war.
The FV603 was also deployed to post-world War II Libya during British military administration of the former Italian colony and during the Radfan Uprising in Aden and southern Arabia in 1963. Its relatively light weight allowed for air transportation, and its complement of machine guns and smoke grenade launchers was effective against opposing ground forces as well as low-flying aircraft. During the 1950s the Saracen was controversially supplied to South Africa while the country remained a member of the Commonwealth, and despite opposition spare parts were delivered under contract until 1968. Four Saracens were deployed by South African police forces during the infamous Sharpeville Massacre in 1960.
As violence and civil unrest escalated during ‘The Troubles’ in Northern Ireland in the late 1960s, the Saracen played a key role in maintaining order in the streets of Belfast, Londonderry and other population centres. A number of vehicles were fitted with water cannon to disperse crowds by non-lethal means. In the summer of 1981 a Saracen was totally destroyed when a bomb hidden in a culvert by the South Armagh Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated, killing five British soldiers.
The Saracen was utilised by the Lebanese army during the country’s civil war from 1975-1990 and by the Sri Lankan army during the civil war of 1983-2009.