Editing Panhard AML (section)

===Europe===
====France====
[[File:SATORY 9 JANVIER 2014 094.jpg|thumb|Panhard AML-60, one of several which entered service with the French [[Mobile Gendarmerie]].]]

French military doctrine recognised two separate fields of armoured vehicle deployment, the first consisting of primary tasks such as manoeuvre and combat, while the second included other tasks such as rearguard defence, liaison, and deception. The latter was to be the responsibility of a mobile reserve which provided interior security during wartime – designated ''Défense Opérationnelle du Territoire'' (DOT) armoured cavalry regiments.<ref name="Knox2">{{cite journal |last=Marzloff |first=Jean |title=Light Armored Units: The Quiet Revolution |journal=[[Armor magazine]] |pages=7–8 |publisher=US Army Armor Center |location=Fort Knox, Kentucky |date=July–August 1973}}</ref> Initially equipped with AMLs and jeeps modified for scouting purposes, these units worked closely with the [[National Police (France)|French police]] and [[National Gendarmerie]]. Their goal was to intercept hostile [[special forces]] or [[Airborne forces|airborne units]] which specialised in deep penetration behind the front line.<ref name="Haynes">{{Cite book|title=Panhard Armoured Car: AML 60, AML 90, Eland|first=Simon  |last=Dunstan|publisher=[[Haynes Manuals]]|year=2019|isbn=978-1-78521-194-2|pages=37, 47–49}}</ref> Secondary tasks included counter-insurgency, passive observation, and guarding static installations.<ref name="Knox2" />

Each DOT troop came to include three AML platoons.<ref name="Knox2" /> As they were expected to remain faithful to the traditional mission of reconnaissance where observation had priority over combat, a number of the AML-60s seem to have been stripped of their main armament, necessitating crew dependence on the vehicle's secondary automatic weapons. Nevertheless, to counter the mechanised threat posed by Soviet and other Warsaw Pact airborne forces, which often deployed with their own armour such as the [[ASU-57]], [[BMD-1]], and [[ASU-85]], AML-90s were favoured as well.<ref name="Haynes"/> DOT regiments came to hold a generic pool of sixteen AML-90s and thirty-four other AMLs of varying configuration.<ref name="Knox2" />

As the AML was readily air transportable, it came to form the materiel strongpoint of the [[French Foreign Legion]]'s rapid deployment force.<ref name="Jordan" /> The Legion AMLs saw combat overseas, either as part of single deployments by the [[1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment]] or to provide fire support for other Legion regiments. Crews perfected unique airfield assaults in which AML-90s were unloaded directly from [[Transall C-160]]s onto the objective, with infantry joining them by parachute.<ref name="Jordan" /> They could also deploy from [[Breguet 941]] and [[Nord Noratlas]] aircraft.<ref name="Swiss" /> These vehicles first saw combat against [[BTR-152]]s manned by [[FROLINAT]] rebels in [[Chad]] during [[Opération Tacaud]], successfully engaging an insurgent mechanised column approaching [[Salal, Chad|Salal]] around April 1978.<ref name="Libya">{{cite book |author1=Tom Cooper |author2=Albert Grandolini |name-list-style=amp |title=Libyan Air Wars: Part 1: 1973–1985|edition=2015|pages=39–37 |publisher=Helion & Co. Ltd|isbn=978-1-909982-39-0|date=2015-01-19 }}</ref> On 18 May another sixteen AMLs, supported by a company of French infantry, routed FROLINAT elements advancing on [[Ati, Chad|Ati]].<ref name="Libya" /> In the subsequent months, additional AML-90s rushed in by the [[Régiment d'infanterie-chars de marine]] (RICM) repelled a major offensive near [[Abéché]] by the Chadian [[Democratic Revolutionary Council]], which was backed by fifty [[Libya]]n [[T-55]] tanks and [[EE-9 Cascavel]] armoured cars.<ref name="Libya" />

Despite the intensity of these clashes, only three<ref name="Afrique">{{cite web|title=Répertoire typologique des opérations, Tome 2: Afrique|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|url=http://www.cdef.terre.defense.gouv.fr/content/download/4401/61001/file/repertoire_typo_2.pdf|location=Paris|publisher=Centre de Doctrine d'Enseignment du Commandement|date=2016|access-date=20 September 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160407075633/http://www.cdef.terre.defense.gouv.fr/content/download/4401/61001/file/repertoire_typo_2.pdf|archive-date=7 April 2016}}</ref> French AMLs were lost in Chad between 1978 and 1979, most likely to [[RPG-7]]s.<ref name="Libya" /> The Foreign Legion's AML squadrons continued to see action during [[Operation Manta]] and the extended [[Opération Épervier]], being organised into anti-tank support groups for three battalion-sized task forces.<ref name="Davis">{{cite journal|title=Wheels for the Future: Should the U.S. Army Adopt an Armored Wheeled System?|last=Davis|first=Glenn|url=http://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a234372.pdf|location=Fort Leavenworth, Kansas|publisher=United States Army Intelligence Center|year=1990|access-date=4 January 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160930170245/http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a234372.pdf|archive-date=30 September 2016}}</ref> Their speed and mobility proved instrumental in destroying much heavier Libyan main battle tanks.<ref name="Davis" /> However, the French crews could only make up for their inferiority in firepower by outflanking the tanks first or attacking from the rear, and by the mid 1980s the threat posed by large Libyan armoured formations was considered so severe a squadron of [[AMX-10RC]]s had to be deployed as well.<ref name="Davis" />

A single RICM AML platoon was deployed to assist in the 1979 overthrow of the [[Central African Empire]] during [[Operation Caban]], likely shifted from Marine contingents stationed in Chad or [[Gabon]].<ref name="Afrique" /> The armoured cars were landed at the airport in concert with French paratroopers during a textbook airborne assault; however, the defending Central African troops surrendered without offering resistance.<ref name="Afrique" /> AMLs did not see action again until [[Operation Épaulard I]], when twenty AML-60s and AML-90s were deployed for [[Infantry support gun|infantry support]] purposes. As the French infantrymen lacked heavy weapons of their own, they remained dependent on the AMLs for suppressing hard targets; this persuaded the French Army of the need for [[infantry fighting vehicles]] in overseas operations.<ref name="Reppy">{{cite web|title=Répertoire typologique des opérations, Tome 1: Europe, Moyen-Orient, Asie, Amerique Centrale, Caraibes|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|url=http://www.cdef.terre.defense.gouv.fr/content/download/4402/61008/file/repertoire_typo_1.pdf|location=Paris|publisher=Centre de Doctrine d'Enseignment du Commandement |date=2016|access-date=20 September 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160930192204/http://www.cdef.terre.defense.gouv.fr/content/download/4402/61008/file/repertoire_typo_1.pdf|archive-date=30 September 2016}}</ref> The AML-90s were later used by the RICM against the [[Rwandan Patriotic Front]] during the [[Rwandan Civil War]].<ref name="Raids">{{cite magazine|title=L'automitrailleuse légère Panhard AML-90|url=http://francegenocidetutsi.org/AML90Raids101octobre1994.pdf|language=fr|magazine=Raids|pages=33–36|issue=101|date=October 1994}}</ref>

The [[Mobile Gendarmerie]] operated over a hundred AML-60s and AML-90s, which were allocated to nineteen separate squadrons.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.senat.fr/rap/1986-1987/i1986_1987_0070_05.pdf |title=Senat Avis: Premiere Session Ordinaire de 1986–1987 (Tome V) |website= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150629163214/http://www.senat.fr/rap/1986-1987/i1986_1987_0070_05.pdf |archive-date=29 June 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The AML was superseded in service with the Mobile Gendarmerie by the [[VBC-90]] at the end of the 1980s.<ref name="Haynes"/>

The last AMLs were withdrawn from active service in the French Army in 1991, being superseded by the [[Panhard ERC]] and the [[AMX-10RC]].<ref name="Haynes"/> France retained about three hundred of these AMLs in storage as part of its strategic reserve as late as 1995.<ref name="Margeride">{{cite web|url=http://www.institut-strategie.fr/strat_062_margeridef_tdm.html|title=Quelques Idees, Plus Ou Moins Non-Conformistes, Sur Les Far/FDR|access-date=15 November 2014|archive-date=3 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140703001931/http://www.institut-strategie.fr/strat_062_margeridef_tdm.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> A small number were also used to simulate [[Opposing force|OPFOR]] armoured vehicles at the [[Centre d'entraînement aux actions en zone urbaine]] (CENZUB) until 2012, when they were finally decommissioned.<ref name="Haynes"/>

====Portugal====
Franco-Portuguese military relations experienced a significant improvement during the 1960s, with the establishment of a French strategic missile tracking site on [[Flores Island (Azores)|Flores Island]] in the [[Azores]].<ref name=Ultramar1>{{cite book|last1=Humbaraci|first1=Arslan|last2=Muchnik|first2=Nicole|title=Portugal's African Wars: Angola, Guinea Bissao, Mozambique|date=1974|pages=193–196|publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers]]|location=London|isbn=978-0-333-13610-2}}</ref> The Portuguese government was compensated with French arms, which it acquired under especially generous terms.<ref name=Ultramar1 /> Following the outbreak of the [[Portuguese Colonial War]], Lisbon began ordering AML-60s for deployment to its three African territories: [[Angola]], [[Mozambique]], and [[Guinea-Bissau]].<ref name="Abbott">{{cite book |last=Peter Abbot|title=Modern African Wars (2): Angola and Mozambique 1961–74|edition=1988|publisher=Osprey Publishing|isbn=978-0-85045-843-5|date=1988-07-28}}</ref> The armoured cars were purchased on long-term credit, with the French government granting payment facilities ranging from ten to twenty years, at six per cent annual interest.<ref name=Ultramar1 /> About 50 AML-60s were delivered to the [[Portuguese Army]] between 1965 and 1968 to complement the ageing EBR already in service.<ref name=trade /> They were circulated largely among reconnaissance platoons in Africa, which utilised them for convoy escort purposes.<ref name="Abbott" /> Severe maintenance problems were soon encountered in the corrosive tropical environment, compounded by excessive dust, which caused transmission and engine damage.<ref name="Auto-Metralhadoras" /> Most AMLs stalled during their initial convoy support missions and had to be towed behind other vehicles.<ref name="AAFJ">''[https://books.google.com/books?id=6eYxAQAAIAAJ African Armed Forces Journal]'': Article "Eland Mk 7 Diesel: African Design". Military Publications (Pty) Ltd, Volume 1994, Collected Issues September to December 1994 p. 28.</ref> These issues were later rectified by the installation of custom [[Volkswagen]] air intakes.<ref name="Auto-Metralhadoras" /> Around the early 1970s, all Portuguese AML-60s in Angola were retrofitted with liquid-cooled, four-cylinder General Motors engines and pressure plate clutches, giving them a resemblance to the Eland Mk7.<ref name="Auto-Metralhadoras" /> The new engines were adopted because they were cheaper to replace and Portugal found it easier to source their associated parts.<ref name="Auto-Metralhadoras" />

In 1974, a squadron of AML-60s seconded to the Portuguese Army's School of Cavalry at [[Santarém, Portugal|Santarém]] took part in the [[Carnation Revolution]], which heralded the collapse of the country's ruling ''[[Estado Novo (Portugal)|Estado Novo]]'' regime and its colonial empire.<ref name=Carnation>{{cite book|author=Sunday Times of London Insight Team|title=Insight on Portugal: The Year of the Captains|date=1975|page=81|publisher=[[André Deutsch]]|location=London|isbn=978-0-233-96733-2}}</ref> The following year, when Portugal withdrew from Angola under the terms of the [[Alvor Agreement]], 5 AML-60s were abandoned in that country and subsequently taken into service by Angolan factions.<ref name=trade /> About 36 of the remaining AMLs were redistributed to the ''Regimento de Cavalaria N.º 3'' (3rd Cavalry Regiment) and ''Regimento de Cavalaria N.º 6'' (6th Cavalry Regiment), while the others were held in reserve.<ref name="Auto-Metralhadoras" />

The Portuguese government entered into negotiations with a local subsidiary of [[Opel]] in 1982 to upgrade its entire AML fleet with liquid-cooled engines and pressure plate clutches, exempting those which had already received similar modifications during their service in Angola.<ref name="Auto-Metralhadoras" /> Opel upgraded one AML for evaluation purposes before the programme was abandoned.<ref name="Auto-Metralhadoras" /> Another, more successful, project entailed the addition of Portuguese PRC-239 wireless radio sets and communications equipment.<ref name="Auto-Metralhadoras" /> The AML-60s were retired from 1989 onwards and replaced by the [[Véhicule Blindé Léger]].<ref name="Auto-Metralhadoras" />