FV430 series

The FV430 series covers a number of armoured fighting vehicles of the British Army, all built on the same chassis. The most common of the series is the FV432 armoured personnel carrier.

Although the FV430 series has been in service for a long time and some of the designs had been replaced in whole or part by vehicles such as those of the CVR(T) range or the Warrior, many have been retained and are receiving upgrades in the engine and control gear.

The FV430 chassis is a conventional tracked design with the engine at the front and the driving position to the right. The hatch for the vehicle commander is directly behind the drivers and a pintle mount next to it can take a machine gun. There is a side-hinged door in the rear for loading and unloading, and in most models a large split-hatch round opening in the passenger compartment roof. In common with such an old design there are no firing ports for the troops carried - British Army doctrine has always been to dismount from vehicles to fight.

There is a wading screen as standard, and the vehicle has a water speed of about 6 km/h when converted for swimming.

FV430 vehicles, if armed, tend to have a pintle-mounted L7 GPMG. There are two three-barrel smoke dischargers at the front.

Vehicles
British Army nomenclature


 * FV431 Armoured load carrier - one prototype produced, Alvis Stalwart 6x6 vehicle selected instead for load carrier role.
 * FV432 Armoured Personnel Carrier
 * FV433 Field Artillery, Self-Propelled "Abbot" - 105 mm self propelled gun built by Vickers.
 * FV434 "Carrier, Maintenance, Full Tracked" - REME Maintenance carrier with hydraulically driven crane lifting capacity of 3,050 kg crew of four.
 * FV435 Wavell communications vehicle
 * FV436 Command and control - some fitted with Green Archer radar, later Cymbeline radar.
 * FV437 Pathfinder vehicle - based on FV432 with integral buoyancy and other waterjets - prototyped only.
 * FV438 Swingfire - Guided missile launcher.
 * FV439 Signals vehicle - Many variants.
 * FV430 Mk3 Bulldog - Upgraded troop carrier that began serving in Iraq in August 2007.

FV430 Mk3 Bulldog
Introduced in December 2006, the Bulldog was designed to meet an urgent operational requirement for extra armoured vehicles for use in counter-insurgency campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. It features an applique reactive armour package designed by Israeli company Rafael capable of defeating hollow charge warheads such as the RPG-7 rockets used by insurgents. A new engine and steering gear provide better mobility and manoevrability. Other features include air conditioning and a gun station fitted with a 7.62mm machine-gun that can be controlled from inside the vehicle. Nine hundred FV430s are expected to be modified in this way and are being deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan alongside the new Mastiff PPV and Pinzgauer High Mobility All-Terrain Vehicle (Vector), relieving some of the pressure on the Warrior fleet. 

The modifications, as well as bringing the vehicle's level of protection up to that of the Warrior, give it better cross country performance and a new top speed of 45 mph (72 km/h).

Modifications on the first 50 units were underway between January and October 2006 at the ABRO facility in Dorset by BAE Systems Land Systems at a cost of £85 million. However these were deployed to Operation Telic in an incomplete state and were brought to completion, along with the rest of the Bulldog fleet during Operation Telic 10, in theatre, in a joint venture between BAE Systems Land Systems and 6 Battalion Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.