Patrol Air Cushion Vehicle

PACV cruising through swamp area
Class overview
Name:	PACV
Builders:	British Hovercraft Corporation, Bell Aerosystems
Completed:	3
General characteristics
Type:	hovercraft
Displacement:	7.06 metric tons
Length:	38 ft 10 in (11.58 m)
Beam:	23 ft 9 in (7.01 m)
Installed power:	1014 hp
Propulsion:	GE LM-100 gas turbine
Speed:	60 kn (110 km/h) maximum
Range:	165 nmi (306 km)
Complement:	4
Armament:	.50 cal M2 machine gun, 2x M60 machine guns

The Patrol Air Cushion Vehicle (PACV) was a United States Navy river patrol hovercraft used during the Vietnam War.

The PACV was based on Bell Aerosystems Bell SK-5 hovercraft; a licensed version of the British Saunders-Roe (later, British Hovercraft Corporation) SR.N5 hovercraft. The SK-5 was adapted for American military use in 1965. Three were purchased by the U.S. Navy for operations in the emerging Vietnam War. Training of PACV crews was performed in the waters off Coronado, California near San Diego. Feedback from the training period allowed refinements to the design to be made.

PACVs were first deployed in 1966 to Vietnam as part of the U.S. Navy's River Patrol Force (Task Force 116). Often called "Pac Vees", they were armed with a .50 caliber machine gun mounted on a rotational platform in the front, side mounted M60 machine guns, and often remote controlled M60s or grenade launchers in the stern. In addition, the crew, and often U.S. Army Green Berets and ARVN Rangers, riding on the side panels, employed assorted small arms such as M16 rifles, M79 grenade launchers, various other rifles, .45 pistols, M60s, and grenades. During PACV's first tour in Vietnam some basic light armor was added to the hovercraft to give it some protection from enemy fire.

The Navy withdrew the PACVs for overhaul in December 1966/January 1967 and redeployed them to Vietnam in late 1967. The U.S. Army created its own version of the PACV in 1967 with some of the Navy's modifications from the experimental phase of 1966, calling it the ACV, for air cushion vehicle. There were only three Navy PACVs, and three Army ACVs during the whole Vietnam War.