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FV103 Spartan

armored personnel carrier

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 13, 2026
Entity authorityQ646736
Source-derived summary

FV103 Spartan is a tracked armoured personnel carrier. It was developed for the British Army as the APC variant of the Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked) family. The vehicle can carry up to seven personnel, including three crew members. Armed with a single machine gun, it is almost indistinguishable from the FV102 Striker in external appearance.

Rather than a general personnel carrier for infantry, the Spartan had been used for moving specialist teams, such as anti-aircraft missile teams. An anti-tank variant of the Spartan armed with MILAN anti-tank missiles was produced, named the FV120 Spartan MCT. Nearly 500 Spartans served with the British armed forces since entering service in 1978. Replacement by newer vehicles started in 2009. The vehicle is now out of British service.

Design and features

The FV103 Spartan was developed during the 1970s as the Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) version of the British Army's Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked) (CVR(T)) family of armoured fighting vehicles, designed by Alvis plc. The vehicle entered service with the British military in 1978.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “FV103 Spartan” is armored personnel carrier. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through FV103, Spartan and armored, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1978, 2009—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, FV103, Spartan and armored is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “armored personnel carrier” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q646736. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1978 and 2009.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “FV103 Spartan”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow FV103 Spartan primary sources, FV103 Spartan archive and FV103 research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “FV103 Spartan”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from FV103 Spartan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.