General Dynamics kicks off ACSV production phase

Production is underway of the first Armoured Combat Support Vehicle (ACSV) for the Canadian Army.

The first ACSV is expected roll off the production line in December this year, with deliveries continuing until February 2025.

A total of 360 vehicles will be produced in eight variants, for vehicle recovery, ambulance, engineering, mobile repair, electronic warfare, troop carrying, and command post missions.

‘Testing, training, and procurement of spare parts will be required before the initial vehicles are distributed to Canadian Armed Forces bases in 2022,’ according to a 4 August statement from the Department of National Defence (DND).

‘These vehicles will form the backbone of the Army’s combat support fleet,’ said Harjit Sajjan, Minister of National Defence.

ACSV will replace M113 tracked APCs and LAV II Bisons currently in service with the Canadian Army. Its design is based on the General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada (GDLS-C) LAV 6.0 8x8 currently in service with the Canadian Army as an APC.

Shephard Defence Insight estimates the unit cost of each new vehicle at $4.2 million.

The DND awarded GDLS-C a C$2.01 billion ($1.52 billion) contract for ACSV in September 2019. Since then, multiple subcontracts worth a combined total of more than C$137 million have been awarded to more than 30 Canadian businesses, in line with government policy.

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