An armoured recovery vehicle (ARV) is a type of armoured fighting vehicle used to repair battle- or mine damaged as well as broken-down armoured vehicles during combat, or to tow them out of the danger zone for more extensive repairs.
ARVs are normally built on the chassis of a main battle tank (MBT), but some are also constructed on the basis of other armoured fighting vehicles, mostly armoured personnel carriers (APCs). ARVs are usually built on the basis of a vehicle in the same class as they are supposed to recover—thus, a tank-based ARV is used to recover tanks, while an APC-based one recovers APCs, but does not have the power to tow a much heavier tank.
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22.01.2007