Canadian Army receives first TAPVs

The Canadian Army received its first Tactical Armoured Patrol Vehicles (TAPV) from Textron Systems Canada on 19 August.

The vehicles will be fielded to 5th Canadian Division Support Base Gagetown, where the first iteration of training on the new vehicle will begin shortly. 

The Canadian government ordered 500 TAPVs from Textron Systems in 2012. The vehicle will partially replace the Coyote Light Armoured Vehicle, completely replace the Armoured Patrol Vehicle RG-31 and complement the Light Utility Vehicle Wheeled. 

Textron Systems plans to deliver at least 30 vehicles per month to the Canadian Army with all 500 vehicles scheduled to be delivered by December 2017. The Canadian Army expects to declare full operational capability by mid-2020.

The TAPV is a 4x4 wheeled armoured vehicle is specifically engineered and designed to provide survivability, mobility and versatility over the full spectrum of operations. 

Earlier this year the vehicle underwent rigorous reliability, availability, maintainability and durability (RAMD) testing, including driving more than 130,000km on challenging terrain representing operational profiles prescribed by the Canadian Army. 

The TAPV’s RAMD testing also included firing the remote weapons station and conducting more than 4,700 hours of remote weapons station usage, including 1,650 hours of silent watch operations.