What is armoured personnel carrier (APC) ?

An M113, one of the most common tracked APCs, during the Vietnam War

An armoured personnel carrier (APC) is a type of armoured fighting vehicle (AFV) designed to transport infantry to the battlefield. APCs are colloquially referred to as 'battle taxis' or 'battle buses', among other things. Armoured personnel carriers are distinguished from infantry fighting vehicles by the weaponry they carry.

The Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe defines them as "an armoured combat vehicle which is designed and equipped to transport a combat infantry squad and which, as a rule, is armed with an integral or organic weapon of less than 20 millimetres calibre." By convention, they are not intended to take part in direct-fire battle, but are armed for self-defence and armoured to provide protection from shrapnel and small arms fire.

Examples include the American M113, the French VAB, the Dutch-German GTK Boxer and the Soviet BTR.

History

The genesis of the armoured personnel carrier was on the Western Front of World War I. In the later stage of the war, Allied tanks could break through enemy lines, but the infantry following — who were needed to consolidate the gains — still faced small arms and artillery fire. Without infantry support, the tanks were isolated and more easily destroyed. In response, the British experimented with carrying machine-gun crews in the Mark V* tank, but it was found that the conditions inside the tanks rendered the men unfit for combat. Britain therefore designed the first purpose built armoured troop transport, the Mark IX, but the war ended before it could be put to use.

During World War II, half-tracks like the American M3 and German SdKfz 251 played a role similar to post-war APCs. British Commonwealth forces relied on the full-tracked Universal Carrier. Over the course of the war, APCs evolved from simple armoured cars with transport capacity, to purpose built vehicles. Obsolete armoured vehicles were also repurposed as APCs, such as the various "Kangaroos" converted from M7 Priest self-propelled guns and from Churchill, M3 Stuart and Ram tanks.

During the Cold War, more specialized APCs were developed. The United States introduced a series of them, including successors to the wartime Landing Vehicle Tracked; but the most prolific was the M113 armored personnel carrier, of which 80,000 were produced. Western nations have since retired most M113s, replacing them with newer APCs, many of these wheeled. The Soviet Union produced the BTR-40, BTR-152, BTR-60, BTR-70, BTR-80 in large numbers. The BTR-60 and BTR-80 remain in production. Czechoslovakia and Poland together developed the universal amphibious OT-64 SKOT. A cold war example of a "Kangaroo" is the heavily armoured Israeli Achzarit, converted from captured T-55s tanks.