Prince Harry is best known recently for his involvement in the Invictus Games for wounded and sick vets. However, he’s also a combat vet, with two tours in Afghanistan, one of which involved flying the AH-64 Apache. But before that, he commanded a platoon of light tanks with a powerful punch (the British Army calls that unit a troop).
The tank in question was the FV 107 Scimitar, part of the Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked) (or CVR(T)) family. According to the British Army web site, the Scimitar weighs just under 18,000 pounds, and is armed with a 30mm Rarden cannon (the same as the one on the Warrior infantry fighting vehicle) and a 7.62mm machine gun. It has top speed of just under 50 miles per hour.
The real impressive part of this is the size of this vehicle. It is only 16 feet long, seven feet four inches wide, and just under seven feet tall. Compare that to the dimensions of a M1127 Stryker (23 feet long, just under nine feet wide, and eight feet eight inches tall), which only has a .50-caliber machine gun.
The CVR(T) family was designed in the 1960s to fit inside transports of the era. The Scimitar saw action in the Falklands War, Desert Storm, in the Iraq War, and during Operation Enduring Freedom.
Prince Harry was slated to serve in Iraq with his troop, but after threats from insurgents, he was instead assigned to be part of a Tactical Air Control Party for his first tour in Afghanisan. He later trained to fly the British Army’s version of the Apache and served as an Apache pilot for his second tour.
You can see a video about this light tank that proved to be a Royal ride below.