The AMX-30 AuF1 is a French self-propelled gun vehicle currently in use by the armies of France and Saudi Arabia. It replaced the former Mk F3 155mm in French Army service. The AuF1 primary advance is that it incorporates full armor and nuclear-biological-chemical (NBC) protection for its crew of four, while the former Mk F3 155mm offered no protection and could carry only two of its four crew members. The AuF1 saw combat with the Iraqi Army in the Iran–Iraq War.
Though the French Mk F3 155mm would remain in production through the 1980s, by the early 1970s the French Army realized there was an urgent need for its replacement. The Mk. 3 155mm lacked a traversable turret and nuclear-biological-chemical (NBC) protection for its crew, and could carry only two of the four crew members needed to operate it (the remaining two having to be transported in support vehicles). Development of the AuF1 began in the late 1960s under the trade name of 155 GCT (155 mm Grande Cadence de Tir; high rate of fire) and the first production version, known as the AuF1, was introduced during the 1980s. About 400 have been produced, with 70 having been upgraded to the AUF2 variant.
