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In 1960, the United States Army adopted the-now ubiquitous M113 Armored Personnel Carrier (APC). From this selection came some 80,000 production units and a plethora of operators seen all over the globe. In the late 1960s, developer FMC Corporation took to developing the line even further (from the M113A1), hoping to net the U.S. Army's lucrative Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV) contract - though the selection eventually favored the vehicle that would become the M2 "Bradley" IFV.

Undeterred, FMC continued in its work and the product came to be known as the "Armored Infantry Fighting Vehicle" (AIFV), essentially serving as an improved, modernized form of the original 1960s offering. The vehicle then found operators from Bahrain to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with several thousand having been produced to date - including 2,249 licensed local examples from Turkey alone. With some modifications to suit its army need, the Turkish AIFV emerged as the FNSS ACV-15 ("Armored Combat Vehicle - 15"). FNSS Defence Systems has been its manufacture with production having run since 1992.

The ACV-15 is a 15-ton-range tracked vehicle with a multi-role attitude as it can serve in the APC role or IFV role with equal effectiveness in Turkish Army doctrine. Dimensions include a length of 17 feet, a width of 9 feet and a height of 9.4 feet. The standard operating crew is three - driver, commander and gunner - with seating for eight combat-ready infantry in the passenger compartment. Entry/exit is through the rear of the hull for the passengers while hatches are also found at each operator station for localized entry/exit and situational awareness as needed. The driver sits front-left with the commander immediately to his rear. The engine is therefore offset to the right side of the forward hull, clearing the necessary space in the cabin for the turret and infantry seating.

The vehicle is protected up to heavy-caliber small arms in the 14.5mm-projectile-range and under. It is, itself, armed primarily by way of a 25mm autocannon mounted within an FNSS "Sharpshooter" one-man powered turret system. Additionally, various other powered turrets can be sat into the turret ring to suit customer requirements. A coaxial 7.62mm machine gun is also fitted as standard to deter enemy infantry. Smoke grenade dischargers are typically seen set to either turret side while some forms of the vehicle tank on a bank of launchers seated on the hull itself for additional screening measures.

The ACV-15's powerpack is centered around an American Detroit-Diesel Model 6V-53T diesel-fueled engine developing 300 horsepower. The running gear includes five rubber-tired road wheels to a track side in a "track-over-wheel" arrangement. The drive sprocket is situated at front with the track idler at the vehicle's rear. Side hull armor extends over a portion of the upper track area. The hull sits atop a torsion bar suspension system for aiding cross country travel. All told, the vehicle provides a maximum road speed of up to 40 miles per hour with an operational range reaching 300 miles.

Operators of the ACV family (beyond the Turkish Army) includes Jordan, Philippines, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates. Malaysian Army versions are named "Adnan" and are locally assembled (DefTech).©MilitaryFactory.com

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Specifications

BASICS [+] MANUFACTURER(S) [+] OPERATORS [+] ROLES [+] DIMENSIONS & WEIGHTS [+] POWER & PERFORMANCE [+] ARMAMENT [+] AMMUNITION [+] VARIANTS [+] HONORS [+]

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