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Armoured personnel carrier seen on West Broadway

April 29, 2017

Everything eventually rolls down West Broadway Avenue. A westbound APC seen Friday evening.

What else to say? At 10:02 p.m., Friday, April 28, I watched a very large dun and olive-coloured armoured personnel carrier (APC) being hauled on a flatbed trailer westbound through the 1400 block of West Broadway Avenue.

In configuration it was a prow-fronted, angular, slab-sided vehicle, mounted on eight large, un-tracked wheels. It had a turret mounted atop the front third of its body, positioned just behind low, forward observation ports. There were a total of nine packs strapped to the visible right side of its body.

The big, tank-like vehicle was headed in the direction of the 15th Field Artillery Regiment, which is quartered in the Bessborough Armoury, located at 2025 West 11th Avenue, just a hop, skip and an  artillery round from where I saw it, at the intersection of West Broadway and South Granville.

Assuming that it is real and not just a big movie prop (always a possibility in Vancouver) then I’m also assuming that it belongs to the Canadian Armed Forces.

It has two more wheels than the surplus Cougar tactical armoured vehicles which the RCMP received in 2010 from the Canadian Forces and it’s makes the Vancouver Police Department’s four-wheeled armoured rescue vehicle (ARV), likewise acquired in 2010, look like a windup toy. Click the images to enlarge them.

VPD’s $350,000 ARV seen languishing in the Manitoba Works Yard on March 15.

From → Automobiles, Marpole

6 Comments
  1. Mike permalink

    That’s an extremely light duty trailer for something that should be very heavy. Very likely a movie prop.

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  2. Pilgrim permalink

    I certainly hope that Canada has no use for it but for display only.

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  3. Daniel Scotr permalink

    Well… first off that is a BTR-80. A Soviet era AFV. Canada operates the LAV III chassis now the the LAV 6. Its not even close to tha same vehicle aside from 8 wheels.

    Second: It did not go to 15th Field Regiment, nor would it. Please don’t speculate about equipment in tranist to xxxx or yyyy because it leads people down rabbit holes.

    Third: The BTR-80 on the flat bed IS a prop for a local movie.

    Thanks!

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    • With respect. rabbit holes have a respectable place in literature; otherwise you are correct. Commenters suggested that it was Soviet-era; that the trailer was far too light for a real APC and that it was a prop for the Predator film being shot at the same time in New Westminster.

      On July 5 I was by the renovated Seaforth Armoury on Burrard Street and saw the recently installed Canadian LAV and you are correct, the number of wheels is the extent of the similarity.

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