VISITORS to this year’s Somerset Armed Forces Day at Vivary Park will be able to get up close to two unique British Army reconnaissance military vehicles.
The Scimitar and the Ferret will be on display on Saturday, July 5, offering a unique window into the armoured vehicles used by soldiers on the front line.
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Meet the team behind Somerset Armed Forces Day 2025
The Scimitar
The Scimitar is an armoured tracked military reconnaissance vehicle that was used by the British Army until they were retired from active service in 2023.
The vehicle first entered service back in 1971 and has served a legion of soldiers from the Balkans to Afghanistan. Its light weight and powerful engine gave it good speed and agility, allowing it to operate effectively in various terrains
Named after the curved Arab sword, the Scimitar was designed against the backdrop of the Cold War and was highly successful when it was first released.
It boasts a 30mm Rarden cannon, could hold three crewmembers, and had a maximum speed of 50 mph.
It was decommissioned by the British Army in 2023 ahead of the arrival of its Ajax replacement – a family of modernised vehicles including reconnaissance (Ajax), armoured personnel carrier (Ares), command and control (Athena), engineering reconnaissance (Argus), and recovery and repair vehicles (Atlas and Apollo).
The Ferret
The Ferret (Mk Two) Scout Car is a British armoured fighting vehicle built by Daimler between 1952 to 1971.
Powered by a six-cylinder Rolls-Royce engine, the Ferret served in a reconnaissance role from the 1950s onward and saw service with the British Army, RAF, and multiple Commonwealth countries throughout its service life.
The Ferret was operational with the British Army in many theatres of war including Malaya (now known as Malaysia), Kenya, Aden and Radfan, in the modern day Yemen, Dhofar in Oman, Northern Ireland, Cyprus, it was present at the first Gulf War and in the Lebanon.
The Ferret could hold a crew of four, including a driver, commander, gunner, and loader.
It was powered by a Rolls-Royce B80Mk6A four-cylinder petrol engine that developed 102 horsepower, giving the vehicle a maximum speed of around 80 kilometers per hour (50 miles per hour).
The vehicle’s main armament was a 7.62mm L7 machine gun, which could be fired from the turret or from a pintle mount on the hull. It also had a coaxial 7.62mm machine gun for engaging infantry and light targets.
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