2e REI: Vehicle Commander-Gunner Training | French Foreign Legion Information

In September 2018, legionnaires of the French Foreign Legion’s 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment (2e REI) passed an Infantry Vehicle Commander-Gunner (CTVI) course in southern France to become commanders of the VBCI infantry vehicles the regiment uses now.

The 2e REI has been equipped with the modern VBCI (Armored Infantry Fighting Vehicle) since 2015. This September, 18 legionnaires from the 1st Company, 2e REI passed the two-week CTVI training to become VBCI’s commanders-gunners. They finished their training at a military shooting range to fire with the VBCI’s main gun, Nexter M811 25 mm Cannon (125 rds/min or 400 rds/min, with a range of 1,500 m).

The new infantry vehicle commanders-gunners could provide their skills in following abroad deployments, like the anti-terrorist Operation Barkhane in the Sahel region of Africa. Two 2e REI VBCIs were hit there in early July 2018 by a suicide attack carried out with a car loaded with explosives. Four legionnaires were badly wounded.

PHOTOS. 2018 CTVI training. Click on the FB icon or here to see all photos.

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