Beach armoured recovery vehicle
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A beach armoured recovery vehicle (BARV) is an armoured recovery vehicle used for amphibious landings.
There have been three different BARVs in British service since their introduction during World War II. They have also been used by Dutch and Australian forces.
Sherman BARV
The original BARV was a
The vehicles were developed and operated by the
M3 BARV
A single M3A5 Grant tank was converted into a BARV in 1950 by the Australian Army. This remained in service until 1970.
Centurion BARV
By the late 1950s, Sherman BARVs were becoming less useful as they were unable to recover the heavier armoured vehicles that were being introduced. The Centurion BARV FV 4018 was developed as a replacement. A mild-steel prototype was followed in 1960 by 12 production vehicles. These were based on the hulls of Mark 1, 2, and 3 Centurion tanks that by this time were redundant. Although initially assigned to the Army, they were passed to the Royal Marines when the Army's amphibious assault role was given to the Marines.[1] The BARV was basically a Centurion body with built up sides to accommodate wading in water up to 11 feet. The design was functional yet crude with sloped armour built above the tank hull. The tracks for the BARV were reversed so they had better grip biting in reverse.
The Centurion BARV retained the gun-tank's Rolls-Royce Meteor petrol engine.
Centurion BARVs had a crew of four; two of the crew were members of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, one of whom was a qualified diver. The Centurion BARVs were built to provide the essential role for the
The Assault Squadrons were initially a mix of Royal Marines and Army serving aboard the ships. The transition to this being all Royal Marines was seen to be essential. The crew for the BARVs would be handed to the Royal Marines with a sergeant, two corporals and a marine, all qualified vehicle mechanics, responsible for driving and maintaining the tank, and also providing full mechanical breakdown services for all embarked vehicles. The training for the crew would take place at Bovington Camp for driver training and at the home of the BARV, RM Instow in North Devon, the Royal Marines amphibious testing centre.
There were many occasions when the BARV would break down or get stuck. In 1981 the BARV from Fearless was to be lost at sea off Browndown beach to end up fully submerged. The following year both BARVs would see service during the Falklands War, being the largest land vehicles ashore, with the BARV from FEARLESS becoming stuck in deep mud whilst pushing an LCU Blue Beach. The vehicle was stuck in the mud for a few days, unfortunately a quillshaft (driveshaft between transmission and final drive unit)snapped during the recovery. The BARV from HMS INTREPID also became stuck in deep mud and suffered the same quillshaft failure and remained static for the duration of the war.
All the Centurion-derived BARVs have now left service and have been sold to collectors or museums around the world.BARV registration number 00ZR21 can be seen at the RAC Tank Museum, Bovington England.
Hippo BRV
In 2003, the Centurion BARV's replacement was introduced. This is the Hippo BRV, which had been in development under the project name of "Future Beach Recovery Vehicle" (FBRV). The name change reflects the fact that, unlike previous generations of vehicle used in this role, Hippos are not fully armored.
The Hippo is a conversion by
Currently, four Hippos are in British service, one each on HMS Albion and Bulwark, with two used by 11 Amphibious Trials and Training Unit Royal Marines. The vehicle is reportedly well liked by its users, but its lack of commonality with the other armoured vehicles used by the UK has caused spares support problems, exacerbated by the poor nature of the Initial Spares Support package procured from Alvis Moelv by the UK's Defence Procurement Agency. This area is being tackled by the MoD's Defence Logistics Organisation.[citation needed]
The Netherlands Marine Corps operates four similar Dutch Leopard 1V-based BRV vehicles known as Hercules, Samson, Goliath and Titan which operate out of the Royal Netherlands Navy assault ships of the Rotterdam class. The vehicles have a similar specification but a different cabin appearance.
Survivors
In England, the
Centurion BARVs are on display at
References
- ISBN 978-1-78159-011-9.
- ^ "Museum Receives Falklands BARV on Loan". Aroventure. Archived from the original on 21 September 2008. Retrieved 8 March 2023.