ACMAT Bastion


The ACMAT Bastion is a modern French armoured personnel carrier, manufactured by ACMAT.
The Bastion is also available to customers in North America and Oceania via Mack Defense.

Design

Its chassis is based on the ACMAT VLRA. In 2018, Arquus, owner of ACMAT, signed a contract with AM General to propose the Bastion as an armored ambulance for the U.S. Army.

Bastion PATSAS

The Bastion PATSAS is a variant designed for special forces. It is lighter and carries 5 equipped soldiers. It is armed with a 12.7mm heavy machine gun and can carry 3 additional medium machine guns.

Fortress

The Fortress, formerly Bastion HM, is an up-armored Bastion, with a more powerful motor and an independent suspension to improve its mobility. It does exist in two versions, APC and armored logistic vehicle.

Service history

West Africa

The Chadian détachement d'action rapide used Bastion Patsas during the 2013 intervention in Mali. The Chadian Army also fielded Bastions during the 2015 intervention against Boko Haram in Far North Cameroon and Nigeria. The Cameroonian Bastion APCs, nicknamed as Cyclones, have been deployed in Northern Cameroon with the Battalion d'intervention rapide elite force. Burkina Faso deployed its Bastions in peacekeeping operations in Northern Mali, under the MINUSMA banner. They have also been used in internal security missions, Bastion Patsas being for instance fielded by the regiment de sécurité présidentielle before its disbandment in 2015. One Bastion was destroyed by Ansar ul Islam in the 2016 Nassoumbou attack. In Mali, the 134th Escadron de Reconnaissance was trained to operate the Bastion APC by the EUTM Mali.

East Africa

In 2015, the United States Department of Defense bought 62 Bastion APC variants commercialised by Mack Trucks to supply various African forces, some of them, such as Uganda, being involved in AMISOM.

Arabian Peninsula

Some of the Saudi Arabian Bastion Patsas were reportedly used in the intervention in Yemen.

Operators