If you are looking for specifications on the “AAV”, they are:

• Armoured personnel carrier (APC)
• 3 member crew
• Weighs 28.4 tonnes (with troops)
• Cummins VT400: 400 hp (298 kw) 4-cycle, 8-cylinder, 90- degree V, water-cooled, turbocharged diesel engine
• Road speed: 45mph (72kmph), Swim speed: 8.2mph (13.2kmph)
• Range: 300miles on land and 7hrs on sea.
• Armour: 45mm thick.
• Weapons: 50 cal M2HB machine gun and 40mm MK-19 grenade machine gun (different versions have different armament)

The first question that the ordinary layman would ask is that why would you want to replace such a vehicle? It carries troops from ship to shore, it is armoured and armed as well? What is so special about the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle that it needs to replace the AAV?

For starters the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle is General Dynamics Land Systems in co-ordination with the United States Marine Corps. Amphibious armoured tracked vehicle with an aluminum hull. It has a custom designed MTU Friedrichshafen diesel (MT883) engine with two modes of operation; a high power mode for skimming over the sea and a low power mode for traveling on land.

The hull has a hydraulically actuated bow flap to aid skimming over ocean surfaces. In other words, the front plane extends forwards and acts like a ski or a surfboard to help the vehicle glide better over the ocean surfaces, the AAV did not have such a device. The EFV uses Honeywell shrouded water-jet propulsurs while in seafaring mode. The tracks retract and hydraulically actuated chines cover the tracks while in seafaring mode.

The EFV has active dampening suspension or as the technicians would call it, “suspension on steroids”. It is a charged unit that makes the ride a lot smoother than most tracked vehicles and during seafaring mode or planing over the water, active charged