[15] As with much postwar hardware based on the experience of subsequent colonial theatres, the AML was recognized for its outstanding ruggedness, dependability, firepower-to-weight ratio, and adaptability to the numerous minor conflicts waged since 1945.

Impressive as they were from a conventional standpoint, the rest of France's existing light armour—such as the Panhard EBR and M8 Greyhound—were not suitably equipped for counter-insurgency; battles of the Algerian War often involved short, sharp, skirmishes which required indirect fire support weapons such as mortars rather than solid shot and shell.

However, Saviem, Berliet, and Panhard petitioned for bidding on a home-grown vehicle, and in 1956 the Ministère de la Défense issued specifications for an indigenous wheeled armoured car of similar dimensions and layout to the Ferret but mounting a breech-loading mortar.

[22][23] In addition to its high explosive anti-tank (HEAT) shells the H-90 also carries fin-stabilised high-explosive (HE) projectiles, the total number of rounds stored being 20, compared with the 53 of the original 60 mm mortar version.

[37] As they were expected to remain faithful to the traditional mission of reconnaissance where observation had priority over combat, a number of the AML-60s seem to have been stripped of their main armament, necessitating crew dependence on the vehicle's secondary automatic weapons.

[39] In the subsequent months, additional AML-90s rushed in by the Régiment d'infanterie-chars de marine (RICM) repelled a major offensive near Abéché by the Chadian Democratic Revolutionary Council, which was backed by fifty Libyan T-55 tanks and EE-9 Cascavel armoured cars.

[41] However, the French crews could only make up for their inferiority in firepower by outflanking the tanks first or attacking from the rear, and by the mid 1980s the threat posed by large Libyan armoured formations was considered so severe a squadron of AMX-10RCs had to be deployed as well.

[33] In 1974, a squadron of AML-60s seconded to the Portuguese Army's School of Cavalry at Santarém took part in the Carnation Revolution, which heralded the collapse of the country's ruling Estado Novo regime and its colonial empire.

[33] The Portuguese government entered into negotiations with a local subsidiary of Opel in 1982 to upgrade its entire AML fleet with liquid-cooled engines and pressure plate clutches, exempting those which had already received similar modifications during their service in Angola.

[55] The much more cumbersome Super Sherman and Centurion tanks tasked with leading the IDF's spearhead towards Tell el-Ful failed to reach their objective; most were forced to turn back in the face of difficult terrain.

[56] Especially notable were several T-54 kills credited to an AML-90 platoon in the Sinai Peninsula: as late as the 1980s, military scholars continued to maintain that the 90 mm DEFA cannon lacked the muzzle velocity to penetrate the thick steel hull of a T-54/55.

[60] Despite longstanding diplomatic contacts, the French presence in Riyadh was rather limited compared to that of the United Kingdom, and the latter was in a better position to provide long-term logistical support for armoured cars to the Saudi military.

[63] The sale was also challenged as a violation of Charles de Gaulle's Middle Eastern embargo, although the French government insisted it did not classify armoured scout cars as the same "heavy war materiel" covered by sanctions.

[71] The surviving AML squadrons remained plagued by chronic shortages of personnel; some crews even fought in their turrets without a trained commander and depended on inexperienced spotters outside the vehicles to guide their fire.

Having lost nearly all their heavy armour and tanks to the militias, the predominantly Christian remnants of the Lebanese Army appropriated three AML-90s and nine obsolete T17 Staghounds to stave off repeated assaults by LAA forces from the hotel district.

[73] The AML-90s' immense firepower at close quarters soon resulted in great structural damage to portside Beirut; a number of fortified buildings were wrecked by 90 mm HE shells, and those struck by multiple HEAT volleys demolished on their foundations.

[76] A detailed analysis undertaken by the United States Army Research Laboratory in 1979 found the AML "operated effectively in Beirut" and noted that "the ease with which the Panhard is driven and repaired, and the absence of tracks, provide the mobility desirable in an urban environment.

"[73] Modifications to militia AMLs included replacement of the original Michelin tyres with an air-pocketed type more resistant to mortar shrapnel, as well as increased armour plate—fabricated after the appearance of Syrian tanks made it difficult ordering volunteers to man the lightly protected vehicles.

[73] Christian Phalangist militiamen deployed twelve AML-90s as assault guns during the Siege of Tel al-Zaatar, using their elevated 90 mm cannon to knock out second or third storey fortifications shielding Palestinian guerrillas.

[73] AML-90s of the Druze Progressive Socialist Party's (PSP) People's Liberation Army (PLA) militia also swung into action against five Staghounds of the Lebanese Internal Security Forces during a raid on Fayadiyeh barracks in mid-1976.

[81] On August 12, 1980, SLA militiamen attacked an Irish UNIFIL checkpoint at the village of At Tiri in southern Lebanon,[81] having been antagonised by a statement made by Brian Lenihan Snr, Ireland's minister for foreign affairs, which they perceived as supportive of the PLO.

[91] These sales were perceived by the French government as a practical manifestation of its new Middle Eastern policies and an opportunity for cultivating more interest in new oil and other commercial deals France hoped to sign with Iraq.

[90] The decision to transfer AMLs to Iraq was, much like the similar sale to Saudi Arabia, vilified by the French domestic press as a violation of a voluntary arms embargo imposed on the Middle East.

[58] Their performance sufficiently impressed the Egyptian Army that it later issued its own requirement for an armoured car with a turret-mounted 90 mm gun, preferably firing discarding sabot projectiles for improved anti-tank purposes.

[104][self-published source][105] In 1987, during the Toyota War, FANT's use of swift wheeled vehicles, including AML-90s, allowed Chadian forces to break through combined arms formations and cause severe damage before the slower Libyan tanks could track or engage their targets.

[107] The Ecole de Formation et d'Application des Troupes Blindées, at Mbanza-Ngungu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was originally established by French Military Cooperation Mission to instruct African AML crews.

[37] Its major feature was its DEFA low-pressure 90 mm rifled gun, which permitted the anti-tank and reconnaissance elements of French territorial units to be combined into a new component capable of knocking out the heaviest vehicle likely to be ranged against it, the Soviet ASU-57 and ASU-85.

[109] Two separate turrets were offered for the AML-20: the French TL-120 SO by the Societe d'Applications des Machines Motrices (SAMM), and the South African LCT-20 by Denel Land Systems, which was originally designed for the Ratel-20 infantry fighting vehicle.

[7] Over a dozen variants of the Panhard AML were developed to meet a wide range of mission requirements, including border patrol, airfield security, light raiding duties, and liaison purposes.

[117] Several companies currently offer upgrades or comprehensive rebuild packages for AMLs, particularly with regards to the elderly Panhard Model 4 HD engine, for which spare parts are difficult and expensive to source.