- Yes
- No
The LAV I
The LAV is a strong symbol in Canada’s current Canadian Armed Forces, many people don’t know that the vehicle history dates back to the middle of the cold war and that the LAV platform was based from the design of the Switzerland’s Piranha I.
History:
In the 1970’s Canada was looking for a wheeled armored vehicle, MOWAG saw this and wanted to license build their Piranha in Canada under the name LAV I. MOWAG settled on Diesel Division (Diesel Division of General Motors of Canada, Ltd.). In 1977 Canada placed an order for 491 vehicles. The propose of this vehicle was to serve as a training vehicle and as a armor support vehicle. Many LAV I’s end up as reserve vehicles some of which even end up as RCMP/police armoured vehicles. Canada decided to retire their fleet of LAV I’s in 2005 and has been sending them to other militaries or use domestically as stated above.
For those who don’t know LAV stands for: Light Armoured Vehicle.
LAV I’s have been deployed to many different countries and conflicts while serving under the Canadian Armed Forces. LAV’s were also used by the UN in Bosnia.
This vehicle was also the platform USA decided to base their LAV 25 off of which is similar to the 2nd generation of Canadian LAV (LAV II Coyote)
Diesel Division of General Motors of Canada, Ltd. has since been purchased by General Dynamics Land Systems Canada that currently make the current generation of LAV’s
Variants:
There are 3 different variants but I will only be focusing on the Cougar as it was the only one that had a strong offensive armament however I will briefly mention the different types:
1. Grizzly (Armored personnel carrier variant)
2. Husky (Recovery vehicle variant)
3.Cougar (Armored Fighting Vehicle variant)
Cougar Information: (other variants were very similar however this suggestion is about the Cougar)
Crew: 3
Armament: 76mm L23A1 gun( HESH, Smoke and Canister rounds)
7.62 mm C6 Machine gun
8 66mm smoke grenade launchers mounted in 2 sets of 4.
Vehicle Specs:
Amphibious
Length: 5.97 m
Width: 2.50m
Maximum speed: 100km/h
Engine: 275 hp Detroit Diesel 6V53T two-cycle turbo-charged diesel
Suspension: 6x6
Weight: 11.0 t
Pictures:
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Sources:
https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/canada/lav.htm
http://www.missing-lynx.com/articles/modern/jpmgriz/jpmgriz.htm
https://weaponsystems.net/system/108-AVGP Cougar
https://scholars.wlu.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1554&context=cmh
