VAB Mephisto
"Les pompiers du champ de bataille sont la!"
- – The French nicknamed the MEPHISTO 'the battlefield's firemen', due to being held in reserve to be sent at the 'hottest' point once contact was made.
If there is one thing the Burgers, the Limeys, the Krauts and the Baguettes have in common, is that when they get their hands on a good design they tend to make umphteen variants of it. Soul brother to the M113 and the FV 430, the French 'VAB' ('Vehicule de l'Avant Blindé', or 'vanguard armored vehicle') has seen multiple declinaisons and usages. The MEPHISTO variant is an ATGM-carrier variant meant to be a mobile, fast-reaction counter to any enemy armor breakthrough.
In Team Yankee
One of the few French vehicles that actually has a true AT weapon.
While AT23 is, of course, nothing to sneeze at, you'll undoubtedly have brought your fair share of French Milans (and probably a smattering of APILASs), which can kill most tanks just as well, so AT shouldn't be much of a problem. That said, certain especially heavy vehicles, such as the Abrams IPA1 and Merkava 2 (read: anything with frontal armour 19), are going to cause trouble even for your Milans. This is where that AT23 comes in very handy.
Mephistos have the obvious advantage of speed over infantry Milans, allowing for quick repositioning to adapt to unexpected enemy tank formations. However, the French have many vehicles that can mount those infantry Milans on their turrets, so even there the Mephisto hardly shines.
All of this makes the Mephisto a situational unit, really only justifiable if you are near certain of facing the heaviest MBTs in the game. Ironically, these are fielded by nations allied to France.
IRL
Not much to add here. With the French army's focus on mobility it is unsurprising they embraced the IFV concept, and the VAB has proven its worth in the conflicts it participated in. As an anecdote, MEPHISTO is an acronym for 'Module Élévateur Panoramique Hot Installé Sur Tourelle Orientable', or 'retractable, turret-mounted, panoramic HOT-launcher'.
| French Forces in Team Yankee | |
|---|---|
| Tanks: | AMX-30 |
| Transports: | AMX-10P- VAB |
| Troops: | Section d'infanterie/Chasseurs - Milan Section Antichar |
| Artillery: | AMX Auf1 |
| Anti-Aircraft: | AMX-13 DCA - AMX Roland |
| Tank Hunters: | VAB Mephisto |
| Recon: | AMX-10 RC - AMX-10P VOA |
| Aircraft: | Gazelle HOT - Gazelle 20mm - Mirage 5 |