Coyote Reconnaissance Vehicle

Coyote Reconnaissance Vehicle
Canadian light armoured vehicle at the Calgary Stampede
Type	Armoured fighting vehicle
Place of origin	Canada
Production history
Designer	General Motors Diesel Division MOWAG
Specifications
Weight	14.4 t (15.9 short tons)
Length	6.39 m (21.0 ft)
Width	2.50 m (8.2 ft)
Height	2.69 m (8.8 ft)
Crew	4 (driver, commander, gunner, surveillance suite operator)
Main armament	1 × M242 25mm chain gun
Secondary armament	1 × C6 7.62mm machine gun (coaxial) 1 × C6 7.62mm machine gun (pintle) 8 × grenade launchers (2 × cluster of 4)
Engine	Detroit Diesel 6V53T 275hp
Suspension	8×8 wheeled, 4× drive
Operational range	660 km
Speed	120 km/h

The Coyote Reconnaissance Vehicle is an armoured car built by General Dynamics Land Systems Canada for the Canadian Forces, for use in the light reconnaissance (scout) role. It was also initially used in the role of medium tank trainer within armoured cavalry squadrons in the same way as the AVGP it replaced. Its eight-wheeled design is a licensed version of the Swiss MOWAG Piranha 8x8. In service since 1996, the Coyote is a later generation of the six-wheeled Canadian AVGP, also developed from the Piranha. It is of a similar family and similar generation as the, Bison APC, USMC LAV-25 and the Australian ASLAV.

The Coyotes mount a 25×137mm M242 Bushmaster chain gun and two 7.62×51mm NATO C6 general purpose machine guns. One of the machine guns is mounted coaxial to the main gun while the other is pintle-mounted in front of the crew commander's hatch. The main gun is equipped with dual ammunition feeds that allow for separate weapons effects, selectable by the gunner/crew commander; the standard load is a belt of armour-piercing sabot rounds and a belt of HE-T explosive/fragmentation rounds. The main gun and coax machine gun are 2-axis stabilized. The turret is equipped with a laser rangefinder, but no ballistic computer; elevation and lead corrections are applied manually by the gunner using multi-stadia reticules in the day, thermal, and image intensification sights. The turret is also equipped with grenade dischargers that can be loaded with smoke and fragmentation grenades.