AAV (amphibious assault vehicle)

AAV stands for amphibious assault vehicle. NATO's glossary of acronyms and abbreviations lists "AAV" with that expansion, and the term describes a vehicle built to support amphibious assault operations by moving personnel or equipment from water to land. The entry appears in AAP-15, the NATO glossary of acronyms and abbreviations.

The abbreviation belongs to military terminology used across NATO and allied defence departments. Allied sources sometimes reverse the wording and write assault amphibious vehicle, but the meaning is the same: a combat vehicle that operates in the water and on land. Canadian suppliers will mostly meet the term in allied defence documents and in NATO material rather than in Canadian tender notices.

How NATO and allied sources define AAV

NATO's AAP-15 glossary expands AAV as "amphibious assault vehicle." NATO also maintains NATOTerm, its database of non-classified military terminology and terminology relevant to NATO, which is the place to check how the Alliance words a term in its own publications.

The United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence records the same expansion. Its acronyms and abbreviations list gives AAV as "Amphibious Assault Vehicles." That list also records other meanings for the same letters, including "Autonomous Aerial Vehicle," so the surrounding document decides which meaning applies.

The United States usage: Assault Amphibious Vehicle

In United States Marine Corps usage, AAV expands to Assault Amphibious Vehicle. A U.S. Department of Defense Inspector General report, DODIG-2019-047, uses that wording and describes the AAV as a combat vehicle that can transition from water to land operations.

A separate U.S. Department of Defense document, report 97-180, explains the role in more detail. The Marine Corps uses the AAV family to land assault elements from assault shipping to inland objectives, and then employs the vehicle as an armoured personnel carrier. The AAV is therefore both a ship-to-shore transport and a land vehicle for carrying troops.

AAV compared with the Canadian AMAV requirement

The Canadian federal procurement material on CanadaBuys that relates to amphibious vehicles uses a different term. The Department of National Defence issued a notice for a standing offer covering Arctic Mobility Amphibious Vehicles (AMAV). AMAV is a Canadian program term and is separate from AAV.

The request for standing offer document describes the scope. It covers vehicles in multiple variants and configurations, trailers, spare parts, and special tools and test equipment, all supplied on an as-and-when-required basis. The scope is a family of vehicles plus support items, not a single platform.

What AAV means for a supplier bidding on Canadian public contracts

Treat AAV and AMAV as two different terms. AAV is the NATO and allied abbreviation for amphibious assault vehicle, and AMAV is the name DND uses for its Arctic mobility requirement. A bid team should write to the vocabulary of the solicitation it is answering and should not substitute one term for the other in a proposal.

• Read the notice and its attached documents for the exact defined terms.
• For AMAV, price and describe vehicles by variant and configuration, along with trailers, spare parts, and special tools and test equipment.
• When an allied or NATO document uses AAV, confirm the context first, since the same letters can mean other things, such as Autonomous Aerial Vehicle.