FV432
FV432 | |
---|---|
Type | Armoured personnel carrier |
Place of origin | United Kingdom |
Service history | |
In service | 1963–present |
Production history | |
Manufacturer | GKN Sankey |
Specifications | |
Mass | 15 tons (15.3 t) |
Length | 5.25 m (17 ft 3 in) |
Width | 2.55 m (8 ft 4 in) |
Height | 2.28 m (7 ft 6 in) |
Crew | 2 + 10 troops |
Armour | 12.7 mm max |
Main armament | 7.62 mm L7 General Purpose Machine Gun |
Secondary armament | smoke dischargers |
Engine | Rolls-Royce K60 multi-fuel 240 hp (180 kW) |
Power/weight | 15.7 hp/tonne |
Suspension | torsion-bar, 5 road wheels |
Operational range | 580 km (360 mi) |
Maximum speed | 52 km/h (32 mph) |
The FV432 is the armoured personnel carrier variant in the British Army's FV430 series of armoured fighting vehicles. Since its introduction in the 1960s, it has been the most common variant, being used for transporting infantry on the battlefield. At its peak in the 1980s, almost 2,500 vehicles were in use.
Although the FV432 was to have been phased out of service in favour of newer vehicles such as the
In light of the army's need for additional armoured vehicles in the Afghan and Iraqi theatres, the Ministry of Defence announced in August 2006 that an extra 70 vehicles would be upgraded by BAE Systems in addition to the 54 already ordered as part of their "force protection initiative". The improvements took the form of an engine upgrade, a new steering unit and a new braking system, as well as improvement in armour protection to a level similar to that of the Warrior.
Plates lined with Kevlar have been added to the bottom hull to provide better protection against improvised explosive devices. It is intended that these FV432s will free up the Warrior vehicles for provision of reserve firepower status and/or rotation out of theatre. The updated version is called the Bulldog.
History
The FV432 was designed to be the armoured personnel carrier in the FV430 series. Production started in 1962 by
The FV432 is of all-steel construction. The chassis is a conventional tracked design with the engine at the front and the driving position to the right. Directly behind the driver's position is the vehicle commander's hatch. There is a large round opening in the passenger compartment roof, which has a split/folding (concertina) hatch, and a (right hand) side-hinged door in the rear for loading and unloading. A 'Boiling Vessel' is mounted on the rear door to provide hot water and heating food. As in many designs of its era, there are no firing ports for the troops carried – British Army doctrine having been for troops to dismount from vehicles to fight, unlike Russian infantry fighting vehicles that largely incorporate ports. The passenger compartment has five seats on either side – these fold up to provide a flat cargo space.
An
Wading screens and a trim vane were fitted as standard and an extension provided to elevate the exhaust pipe. The basic vehicle, which could be readied for wading in approximately five minutes, has a water speed of about 6 km/h when converted for swimming and was propelled by its tracks.[2] Most of these vehicles have had their amphibious capability removed.[citation needed]
FV432s in service with infantry battalions are equipped with a pintle-mounted
The Australian Army evaluated two pre-production FV432s during 1962 and 1963, but decided to purchase M113 armoured personnel carriers instead. The trials undertaken in Queensland demonstrated that the M113's performance was superior to that of the FV432.[3]
A number of surplus vehicles were sold to the Indian Army after being withdrawn from UK service.
Variants
The FV432 has been produced in three major variants, the Mark 1 (with a Mark 1/1 minor variant) with
The FV432 has proven to be flexible in use and can be converted from one role to another with reasonable ease using 'installation kits' (IK), or more permanently with minor modifications to the hull. Major or more significant modifications have usually led to a new FV43n number. In addition to the normal armoured personnel carrier role, it has been used as:
- a command vehicle, with seven crew, two mapboards and extra communications equipment (with an additional canvas "penthouse")
- an ambulance, with spots for up to four stretchers or two stretcher and five seated patients but would not carry any armament other than the smoke dischargers.
- a cargo carrier, for up to 3,600 kg
- a communications vehicle
- a recovery vehicle. Designated as the FV434, it includes a rear cutout to a "pickup-truck" box to carry a spare engine/other stores with tool store below, an internally mounted winch, and a 2.5-tonne lift arm.[2] Frequently equipped with the canvas "penthouse".[citation needed]
- anti-tank guided missile launcher (designated FV438) with two Swingfire ATGM launchers that were reloaded from an internal magazine of 10 missiles. Swingfire was a command line of sight wire-guided missile controlled from a sight mounted on the top of the FV438. The missile range was 4,000 metres. The launch tubes were to the left and slightly behind the CLOS sight. Royal Armoured Corps, Infantry and Royal Artillery units were equipped at various times with FV438.
FV432s used by combat infantry units have also been equipped with:[2]
- WOMBAT recoilless rifleearly models carried this armament internally, using ramps and a hand winch to deploy and recover the weapon. Later models mounted it externally above the rear hatch. In this arrangement the weapon had limited-traverse (30° lateral, +7.5° −3° elevation), but it could also be demounted as in the earlier arrangement.
- 84mm Carl Gustav recoilless rifle mounted on a bar across the top of the troop compartment.[2]
- 81mm mortaron a turntable in the rear of the hull can be traversed through 360° firing through the roof hatch; 160 mortar rounds are carried; crew consists of a driver, commander and two men.
- Peak Engineering turret with the L37A1 variant of the 7.62mm GPMG, replacing the roof hatch.
- Royal Hampshires, was driven by their honorary colonel, Diana, Princess of Wales, on her visit to Berlin in 1985[6]These were later bought by the tank driving and paint-balling company Armourgeddon (who also converted more). These have been modified with a compressed air cylinder on the rear of the turret for the paintball gun.
- ZB 298 Elliott Automation Grounds Surveillance Radar
- MILAN anti-tank missiles (two missile teams, deployed away from the vehicle)
FV432s used by the Royal Artillery have been equipped with:[2]
- a battery command post with FACE fire control computer
- a battery command post with BATES battlefield artillery target engagement system
- Cymbeline mortar-locating radar
- sound ranging equipment
- observation post vehicle with ZB 298 Elliott Automation Grounds Surveillance Radar
FV432s used by the Royal Engineers have been equipped with:[2]
- a towed layer for L9 anti-tank Bar Mine
- a launcher for L10 Ranger Anti-Personnel Mine
- a towed Giant Viper mine-clearing system
- a Remote Weapon System
Bulldog
The need to upgrade the FV432 to extend its service life further led the MoD to sign an £85m contract with
For service in Iraq and Afghanistan, air-conditioning, enhanced reactive armour and IED jammers were added. Initially, only these further enhanced versions were known by the name Bulldog. The term now applies to all Mark 3 vehicles.[7]
Operators
Current operators
- Ukraine - The British government is providing an unspecified number of FV432 Mark 3 Bulldogs to the Ukrainian Army.[8]
- United Kingdom
See also
- M113 – similar US-built armoured personnel carrier
- Pbv 302 - similar Swedish armoured personnel carrier from Hägglund & Söner
- MT-LB
- BTR-50
- List of FV series military vehicles
- MLVM
Bibliography
- Howard, Les "Winter Warriors – Across Bosnia with the PBI", ISBN 978-1-84624-077-5Critical account of a British army Peacekeeper operating from FV 432s at the end of the Bosnian civil war
References
- ^ a b "BAE Systems Awarded £15 Million Contract to Support Upgraded FV432 Armoured Vehicle". defence-aerospace.com. Briganti et Associés. 30 March 2006. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
- ^ a b c d e f Foss, Christopher F. (1973). AFV Profile 53 The FV 432 Series. Profile Publications Ltd, Coburg Hse, Sheet Street, Windsor, Berks: Profile Publications Limited. p. 9.
- ^ Cecil, Michael K (2011). "A Major Move to Mobility: Introduction of the M113A1 Family of Vehicles". In Baines, John; Branagan, Peter; Finlayson, David (eds.). The AFV School: 70 years of training Australian armour. Royal Australian Armoured Corps. pp. 48–50.
- ^ "FV432 – 30mm RARDEN MK (UK)". PanzerBaer.de.
- ^ Torfaen Corvine (20 February 2016). "FV432 Rarden, Dickensweg, Berlin 1980s". Flickr.
- ^ "Some notes on the British Berlin Brigade of 1985". Sparker's Wargaming Blog. 17 November 2015.
- ^ "Tank Chat #156 | Bulldog | the Tank Museum". YouTube.
- ^ Trevithick, Joseph (17 January 2023). "Meet The Tanks And Other Armor The U.K. Is Sending To Ukraine". The Drive. Retrieved 10 March 2023.