amphibious assault vehicle

amphibious assault vehicle (AAV), an armed and armoured military vehicle designed to deliver assault troops and their equipment from ship to shore under combat conditions. As developed most fully by the United States Marine Corps, AAVs are tracked vehicles that transport troops and materiel over water and continue to function ashore under hostile fire as logistical vehicles or as fighting vehicles.

The origin of modern AAVs can be traced to the 1920s and ’30s, when Marine Corps planners, preparing for eventual war in the Pacific against the Japanese empire, considered the central problem posed by amphibious landings from the open seas—specifically, how to deliver assault troops to a defended shore quickly and with sufficient force to establish a secure beachhead and continue fighting inland. To help solve the problem the Marine Corps turned to the Alligator, an amphibious rescue vehicle first built in 1935 by Donald Roebling, a scion of the engineering family founded by John Augustus Roebling. Roebling’s lightweight aluminum vehicle was propelled in water and driven on land by a set of tracks equipped with paddlelike cleats. From this civilian prototype the Marine Corps developed a more powerful steel-plated military version called the Landing Vehicle Tracked, or LVT. Originally built in 1941 as an unarmoured cargo carrier called the amphibian tractor, or amtrac, the LVT quickly acquired armour. Two types evolved: an armoured amphibious personnel and cargo carrier and a turreted amphibious gun-vehicle for close fire support during landing operations. Altogether 18,620 LVTs were built during World War II; these played a prominent role in the Pacific campaigns from Guadalcanal onward.

After World War II, LVTs were successfully used in Korea, notably for the 1950 Inch’ŏn landing. Two new models were built between 1951 and 1957: an LVTP-5 amphibious carrier, capable of carrying as many as 37 men, and an LVTH-6 armed with a turret-mounted 105-mm howitzer. They were followed in 1972 by the 22.8-ton LVTP-7, which incorporated several improvements, the most important being a boatlike hull with a stern loading ramp instead of a bow ramp and two water-jet propulsion units that greatly improved its performance in comparison with that of the earlier LVTs. At the same time, the LVTP-7 retained the seagoing qualities of the earlier LVTs, which could negotiate rough seas and Pacific surf—in contrast to other amphibious vehicles, which were intended primarily for crossing inland water obstacles.

In 1985 the LVTP-7 was redesignated the AAVP7A1, as part of its continued evolution from a landing vehicle into an assault vehicle. The AAVP7A1 is still an important platform in the U.S. Marine Corps’ traditional role as an amphibious force, though it also has been used in conflicts far from the sea, notably in the Iraq War. The vehicle, weighing more than 25 tons fully loaded, can transport 25 combat-ready marines over water at 8 miles (13 km) per hour. On land it can travel over roads at 45 miles (70 km) per hour. Its standard armament consists of a 12.7-mm machine gun and a 40-mm grenade launcher. The AAVP7A1 and its LVTP-7 predecessor have been exported for service in marine forces of other countries—for example, South Korea and Taiwan.

After 2003 Britain’s Royal Marines employed the Viking, an amphibious armoured all-terrain vehicle based on a Swedish design. The Viking consists of two tracked units, or cabins, linked by a steering mechanism. The forward cabin, carrying the engine and driver, can transport three fully equipped marines, and the rear cabin has room for eight marines. The sole weapon is a 12.7- or 7.62-mm machine gun mounted on the forward cabin. With such a configuration and armament, the Viking is intended to serve primarily as a transport or patrol vehicle and not as an assault platform. It has seen service in Afghanistan.