The Light Armoured Vehicle, or LAV, is one of the newest vehicles in the Marine Corps’ arsenal. Based on the Swiss MOWAG Piranha and built by General Motors in Canada, this vehicle offers the Marines a fast, highly mobile reconnaissance and light fire support vehicle.

Introduced in 1983, the Marine Corps have organised a number of light armoured vehicle battalions equipped with the LAV and assigned to the Marine divisions. Each battalion has four light armoured vehicle companies equipped with LAV-25, LAV-AT and LAV-M vehicles.