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The Royal British Columbia Marine Corps (Chinook Wawa: Hyas Tyee yaka Marines) is the marine corps and amphibious infantry of BC, and forms part of the BC Naval Service. Over the course of its history, the RBCN has served in the First and Second World Wars, the Korean War, the Malayan Emergency, the Persian Gulf War and various United Nations peacekeeping missions and APTO operations.

Units[]

  • Haida Regiment
  • Salish Regiment
  • Kwakiutl Regiment
  • Tsimshian Regiment
  • Nootka Regiment

Equipment[]

Light Tanks[]

  • Carden Loyd tankette (1931-1937)
  • Renault R35 light infantry tank (1936-1943)

Armoured Vehicles[]

  • Universal Carrier personnel carrier variants (1935-1948)
  • Otter Mk. I light recce car (1942-1945)
  • Staghound Mk. I armoured car (1944-1960)
  • Gaansateh armoured personnel carrier and variants (1959-1985)
  • VAB armoured personnel carrier and variants (1983-2012)
  • BMP-3F infantry fighting vehicle especially for amphibious operations (2012 to date)

Utility Vehicles[]

Light General Service Trucks[]

  • Ford TT (1920-1932)
  • Ford AA (1930-1943)
  • Willys MB (1942-1955)
  • Land Rover series I (1954-1965)
  • Bedford TJ1 (1959-1981)
  • Land Rover series II (1964-1988)
  • Bedford CF (1970 to date)
  • Land Rover Defender 110 (1987-2011)
  • Land Rover Defender XD (2010 to date)

Medium General Service Trucks[]

  • Bedford OY (1939-1955)
  • Bedford RL (1954-2003)
  • Bedford (Tatra) 815 (2001 to date)

Helicopters[]

  • Kaman Huskie utility helicopters (1954-1963)
  • Yarrows Yoho multi-purpose helicopters (1963-1988)
  • [Sikorsky Seahawk]] multi-purpose helicopters (1987 to date)

Ships[]

Bar-class LCH[]

Although the amphibious ships of the RBCN are operated by the Navy for Marine purposes, the Bar-class heavy landing craft are assigned to and crewed by the Marines (though they are owned by the Navy). These vessels are nearly identical to the Royal Australian Navy's Balikpapan-class heavy landing craft, but were built under licence in BC by Burrard Dry Dock Ltd. of North Vancouver.

  • HMBCS Kanaka Bar (1972 to date)
  • HMBCS China Bar (1972 to date)
  • HMBCS Nitinat Bar (1973 to date)
  • HMBCS Cantilever Bar (1973 to date)
  • HMBCS Boston Bar (1974 to date)
  • HMBCS Governors Bar (1974 to date)

Artillery[]

  • M1 75 mm pack (1934 to date)

Mortars[]

  • Stokes trench mortar 81 mm (1917-1937)
  • Ordnance ML 3-inch 81 mm (1935-1969)
  • L16 81 mm (1967 to date)

Infantry Weapons[]

Rifles[]

  • Snider-Enfield .577 BL rifle (18xx-1899)
  • Magazine Lee-Enfield .303 repeating rifle (1896-1914)
  • Short Magazine Lee-Enfield Mk. III .303 repeating rifle (1913-1945)
  • Lee-Enfield Rifle No. 4 Mk. I .303 repeating rifle (1943-1985)
  • FA-MAS F1 5.56x45 mm NATO assault rifle (1984 to date)

Sniper Rifles[]

  • DeLisle Commando Carbine .45 bolt-action rifle (1943-1965)
  • Kongsberg M59F1 7.62x51 mm NATO sniper rifle (1960-1989)
  • Våpensmia NM149 7.62x51 mm NATO sniper rifle (1988-2001)
  • McMillan TAC-50 .50 BMG sniper rifle (2000 to date)

Service Pistols[]

  • Colt Model 1878 revolver (1885-1905)
  • Colt "New Service" .455 Webley revolver (1902-1930)
  • Colt Model 1911 .455 Webley semi-automatic service pistol (1919-1958)
  • Tobin "High-Power" .40 semi-automatic service pistol (1944 to date) - BC re-engineering of Browning Hi-Power

General-Purpose Machine Guns[]

  • Vickers .303 water-cooled machine gun (1914-1946)
  • Browning M1919 .303 GP machine gun (1937-1985) - from 1950 converted to 7.62x51 mm NATO
  • FN MAG 7.62x51 mm NATO GP machine gun (1980 to date)

Light Machine Guns[]

  • Lewis .303 light machine gun (1914-1943)
  • Bren .303 light machine gun (1938-1959)
  • L2A1 7.62x51 mm NATO light machine gun (1955-2006)

Sub-machine Guns[]

  • Thompson M1921 .45 ACP SMG (1925-1945)
  • Thompson M1 .45 ACP SMG (1943-1971)
  • Sterling 9x19 mm Parabellum SMG (1969-2009)
  • Arsenal Shipka 9x19 mm Parabellum SMG (2008 to date)

Machine Pistols[]

  • Heckler & Koch VP70 9x19 mm Parabellum (1972 to date)

Anti-Tank Rifles & Rockets[]

  • Boys .55 anti-tank rifle (1938-1943)
  • PIAT infantry anti-tank rocket (1942-1966)
  • M72 LAW 66mm anti-tank rocket (1964-1992)
  • Bofors AT4 84mm anti-tank rocket (1986 to date)

Recoilless Rifles[]

  • M18 57 mm (1945-1967)
  • M67 90 mm (1965 to date)

Anti-Tank Guided Missiles[]

  • Malkara (1959-1968)
  • Swingfire (1967-2009)
  • Eryx (1995 to date)

Man-Portable Surface-to-Air Missile Launchers[]

  • Flyswatter (1972-1977) - Fairey BC-built clones of SA-7 Strela obtained via covert means; less than satisfactory
  • Blowpipe (1976-2004)
  • Starstreak (2003 to date)
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