Vehicle:

Pn61Pulpit MLRS

This manufacturer's large range of wheel driven 'armoured cars' has recently been expanded with this very large, 6 wheeled vehicle.

It is better equipped and armoured than many of this manufacturers vehicles with prodigious ground clearance but this is offset in offensive use by being very easily visable on the battlefield. Alongside other disadvantages - such as increase operational cost - the Pn6 series has not been widely adopted for front line use.

Although armour is thick for an armoured car - and very well shaped - the Pn6 range is not "virtually a wheeled tank" as the manufacturer claims - offensive wepn fit can be impressive on some models but point defence is limited, which does not help in Panhard's claims in this area.

Where the Pn6 range scores well is as rear echelon vehicles such as the Pn61 'Pulpit' used as an area bombardment/guided missile weapon MLRS system.

Each individual missile housed in the (rather vulnerable) box on the hull top has a pre-launch configurable warhead system.

When employed in the indirect fire mode the weapon system is a useful artillery 'substitute' being able to saturate an area with missiles in a short space of time, and each individual missile can be configured as HE, Cluster or a form of Self Forging warhead. The effectiveness of each warhead is, in itself, not particularly efficient: each missile warhead is at least twice the weight of an equivalent artillery shell warhead of similar calibre and destructive capability. But the system can launch a lot of missiles…

The MLRS system has a secondary mode of direct fire where the missiles can be configured as guided, anti-armour projectiles. The height of the vehicle and weapons pack, however, makes the Pn61 Pulpit a very vulnerable target on the combat line. As such, the The Waldheim Dragoons are one of Panhard's only customers to date for this variant.