The full form or meaning of the APC acronym is Armoured Personnel Carrier which is related to the military.
The Armoured Personnel Carrier is a type of military vehicle and it is a broad armoured. The Armoured Personnel Carrier was designed as a military vehicle mainly to transport personnel and other tools in the battle zone.
In other words, the Armoured Personnel Carrier is also referred to as the battle buses or battle taxis. These Armoured Personnel Carrier became a common type of military equipment after World War I.
About APC
The Treaty on Conventional armed forces, Europe has given its definition for APC or Armoured Personnel Carrier. According to this definition “an armoured combat vehicle is designed and equipped to transport a combat infantry squad and it is armed with an integral or organic weapon of fewer than 20 millimetres calibre.”
Infantry is also carried in the battle so for that the military uses the infantry fighting vehicles or IFVs. However, these Armoured Personnel Carrier are not created for direct fire support in the combat like the infantry fighting vehicles and these Armoured Personnel Carrier have less armament compared to the Infantry fighting vehicles.
APC history
In a world war, infantry support was a need because without it the tanks available in the combat were easily destroyed and could be isolated. The first purpose-built armoured troop transport was designed by Britain and it was Mark IX. However, even before it could be used the war ended. It was needed to design as the beginning of the Armoured Personnel Carrier was on the Western Front in World war I. allied tanks were able to break the enemy lines and pass it in the later stage of the war.
- However, it was followed by the infantry and these were required to combine the advances in the war and these faced small arms along with artillery fire.
- The British here tested the carrying machine-gun crews in the Mark V tank. However, this experiment was not able to succeed as the circumstances inside the tanks condensed the military unit going for combat. After this Mark IX was persuaded.
- American M3 and German-made Sd.Kfz 251worked as the Armoured Personnel Carrier that was used after the war. These half-tracks such as Sd.KFZ 251 and M3 were used in World War II.
- As wartime passed these Armoured Personnel Carrier were developed and evolved. First, these Armoured Personnel Carrier were like simple armoured cars and these armoured cars only had transport capacity. Afterwards, these Armoured Personnel Carrier become purpose-built vehicles.
- Along with this other outmoded armoured vehicles were now repurposed as the Armoured Personnel Carrier. Some of these armoured vehicles were M7 Priest that was self-propelled guns along with M3 Stuart, Churchill, Ram tanks etc. that turned into “Kangaroos.”
- In the 1980s and 1990s, these Armoured Personnel Carrier were developed in more advance and specialized versions and this was the time of the Cold War.
- Landing Vehicle tracked was one of those Armoured Personnel Carriers that the United States developed in the cold war and later it also become a successor. However, the most considered and productive Armoured Personnel Carrier was the M113 APC.
- Most of these M113s later got retired by the western countries. As this Armoured Personnel Carrier M113 was retired it got replaced by the advance and new Armoured Personnel Carrier and many of these new Armoured Personnel Carrier was wheeled.
- On the other hand, the Soviet Union which was also in the cold war also produced many Armoured Personnel Carrier. Some of the Armoured Personnel Carriers that the Soviet Union used were BTR-40, BTR-152, BTR-70, BTR-60, BTR-80 etc. these Armoured Personnel Carrier by the Soviet Union were made in large quantities.
- The cold war also has an example of Kangaroo Armoured Personnel Carrier which is Achzarit. Achzarit was made from Captured T-55s tanks. This Achzarit was considered a heavily armoured Armoured Personnel Carrier of Israel.
Some Other Famous Full Forms of APC
APC- American Power Conversion
APC- Automatic Performance Control
