The FV430 series covers a number of armoured fighting vehicles of the British Army, all built on the same chassis. The most common of the series is the FV432 armoured personnel carrier.

Although the FV430 series has been in service for a long time and some of the designs had been replaced in whole or part by vehicles such as those of the CVR(T) range or the Warrior, many have been retained and are receiving upgrades in the engine and control gear.

The FV430 chassis is a conventional tracked design with the engine at the front and the driving position to the right. The hatch for the vehicle commander is directly behind the drivers and a pintle mount next to it can take a machine gun. There is a side-hinged door in the rear for loading and unloading, and in most models a large split-hatch round opening in the passenger compartment roof. In common with such an old design there are no firing ports for the troops carried - British Army doctrine has always been to dismount from vehicles to fight.

There is a wading screen as standard, and the vehicle has a water speed of about 6 km/h when converted for swimming.

FV430 vehicles, if armed, tend to have a pintle-mounted L7 GPMG, or a Bren gun. There are two three-barrel smoke dischargers at the front.

• FV431 Armoured load carrier - one prototype produced, Alvis Stalwart 6x6 vehicle selected instead for load carrier role.

• FV432 Armoured Personnel Carrier

• FV433 Field Artillery, Self-Propelled "Abbot" - 105 mm self propelled gun built by Vickers.

• FV434 "Carrier, Maintenance, Full Tracked" - REME Maintenance carrier with hydraulically driven crane.

• FV435 Wavell communications vehicle

• FV436 Command and control - some fitted with Green Archer radar, later Cymbeline radar.

• FV437 Pathfinder vehicle - based on FV432 with integral buoyancy and other waterjets - prototyped only.

• FV438 Swingfire - Guided missile launcher.

• FV439 Signals vehicle - Many variants.

• FV430 Mk3 Bulldog - Upgraded troop carrier that began serving in Iraq in December 2006.

The all-welded steel hull of the FV432 provides complete protection against small arms fire and shell splinters. The driver sits at the front of the vehicle on the right side and has a single-piece hatch cover that opens to the left. This has an AFV No 33 Mk 1 wide-angle day periscope, which can be replaced for night driving by an L5A1 passive periscope.

The commander sits behind the driver and has a cupola that can be traversed manually through 360°. This cupola has a single-piece hatch cover and three AFV No 32 Mk 1 day periscopes. Mounted on the forward part of the commander's cupola is a 7.62 mm GPMG.

The engine compartment is to the left of the driver with the air inlet (forward), air outlet (rear) louvres in the roof and the exhaust pipe running along the left side of the hull. The complete engine with its oil tanks and filters is mounted on a common subframe, which can be removed from the vehicle as a complete unit and reconnected on the ground by extended cables and fuel lines for testing. The engine compartment is fitted with a FIREWIRE detection system. The engine is coupled to the General Motors Allison Division TX-200-4A semi-automatic transmission, which was built under licence in the UK by Rolls-Royce. This in turn supplies power to the steering unit at the front of the hull via a universally jointed propeller shaft. Access to the steering system for maintenance is through a forward-opening hatch in the glacis plate.

The troop compartment is at the rear of the FV432 with 10 (five a side) infantrymen seated on bench seats that run down either side of the hull. The seats are hinged to the lower side plates on either side of the compartment and fold upwards, enabling the vehicle to carry up to 3,670 kg of cargo. The infantrymen enter and leave the vehicle via a large door in the rear of the hull, which opens to the right and is provided with a vision block. Over the top of the troop compartment is a circular hatch cover that opens to the left and right of the vehicle, each part being hinged in the middle, 'concertina' fashion.

The torsion bar suspension either side consists of five dual rubber-tyred road wheels with the drive sprocket at the front, idler at the rear and two track-return rollers. The first and last road wheel stations have a friction shock-absorber and the upper part of the track is covered by a light sheet-metal covering. The steel tracks are rubber-bushed and fitted with removable rubber pads.

There is an NBC system mounted in the right side of the hull, which provides fresh air via ducts to both the driver and troop compartments.