Lets shorten Assault Amphibious Vehicle to AAV.
- AAVs are used for land and sea military operations, generally around the beach.
- The marines call AAVs “amtracks”, which is short for amphibious tractor.
- An AAV was originally known as a “Landing Vehicle, Tracked, Personnel-7” or LVTP-7.
- AAVs are generally equipped with a grenade launcher, a heavy machine gun, crew radios, and an intercom system.
- AAVs have the capacity to hold 21 equipped troops, and four crewman – the driver, commander, gunner, and a rear crewman.
AAV
Image courtesy of the Official U.S. Navy Imagery/Flickr
- AAVs were originally LVTD-7s which were first made in 1972 and converted to AAV-7A1s in the 1980s.
- An AAV-7A1 weighs 29.1 tons (26.4 tonnes), and is 7.94 meters (26 feet) in length, 3.27 meters (10.7 feet) in width and 3.26 meters (10.7 feet) in length.
- The AAV-7A1 can travel over speeds of 24.32 km per hour (15 mph) off road, 72 km/h (45 mph) on road and 13.2 km/h (8.2 mph) in water.
- The replacement cost of an AAV is over two million dollars.
- The Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) was due to replace AAVs in 2015, but the plans have been cancelled.
Bibliography:
Assault Amphibious Vehicle 7 February 2013, Wikipedia, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assault_Amphibious_Vehicle>
LVTP7 Landing Vehicle, Tracked AAVP7A1 Assault Amphibian Vehicle Personnel April 14, 2000 , FAS, <http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/aavp7a1.htm>
