Armoured personnel carriers (APCs) are light armoured fighting vehicles for the transport of infantry. They usually have only a machine gun although variants carry recoilless rifles, anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs), or mortars. They are not really designed to take part in a direct-fire battle, but to carry the troops to the battlefield safe from shrapnel and ambush. They may have wheels or tracks. Examples include the American M113 (tracked), the British FV 432 (tracked) the French VAB (wheeled) and the Soviet BTR (wheeled).
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Romanian Transporter Auto Blindat APCs that made infamous front-line news in 1989 were mostly eight-wheeled, massive Romanian clones of the Soviet BTR-60 APC. Soldiers hated this machine, with uncomfortable access from above and heavy latches that seemed designed to snap one's fingers off. Limited visibility and clumsy manoeuvrability in an urban environment might have contributed (along with bad will, of course) to the nu ...
During World War I, when the tank was developed, the British Mark V tank was designed with a small passenger compartment to carry troops. By some definitions this can be considered the first armoured personnel carrier. The first specialised APC was the Mark IX of 1918.
Often, APCs were simply armoured cars with the capacity for carrying troops, but they evolved into purpose-built vehicles to su ...
Most armoured personnel carriers use a diesel engine comparable to that used in a large truck or in a typical city bus (APCs are often known to troops as 'Battle Taxis' or 'Battle Buses'). The M113 for instance used the same engine as the standard General Motors urban bus. A single M113 moving at top speed generates as much noise as a General Motors urban bus moving at top speed. However, the typical armoured personnel carrier can carry only six to ten soldiers while a typical urban bus can carry thirty to fifty seated passen ...
