General Dynamics promotes light armoured vehicles at CANSEC as controversial export to Saudi Arabia continues

Published by Brent Patterson on June 5, 2025June 5, 2025

Photo: The LAV 6.0 MkII at CANSEC 2025.

On June 4, 2025, MSN reported: “General Dynamics Land Systems unveiled in Canada the new version of the LAV 6.0 armored personnel carrier during the CANSEC expo. The LAV 6.0 Mk 2 is an 8×8 platform with design and combat capability improvements over previous versions, including a redesigned turret with more powerful weaponry and enhanced tactical performance.”

LAV exports to Saudi Arabia

In September 2024, Project Ploughshares reported:

“In 2023, the high value of Canada’s arms exports to Saudi Arabia continued to be driven by the 2014 Canada-Saudi arms deal, the largest in Canadian history with a price tag of $14 billion. Under the terms of the contract, London, Ontario’s General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada (GDLS-C) is to supply the Saudi Royal Guard with 742 light armoured vehicles (LAVs). The vehicle variant, the LAV-700, is the most advanced available today.

According to Canada’s submission to the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms (UNROCA), which collects data on actual arms exports rather than their sum value, Canada transferred 40 armoured combat vehicles (ACVs) to Saudi Arabia last year.

Since 2017, Canada has transferred 652 of these vehicles to the Saudi government. While Canada does not typically disaggregate the make and model of ACV transfers in its reports to UNROCA, it can be assumed that the majority of such transfers to Saudi Arabia since 2017 have been GDLS-C LAV 700s.”

Photo: General Dynamics LAV on display at CANSEC 2025.

Saudi repression of human rights defenders

In their report on human rights in Saudi Arabia in 2014/15, Amnesty International noted: “The government severely restricted freedoms of expression, association and assembly, and cracked down on dissent, arresting and imprisoning critics, including human rights defenders. …Authorities targeted the small but vocal community of human rights defenders, using anti-terrorism laws to suppress their peaceful actions to expose and address human rights violations.”

In their most recent report released in April 2025, Amnesty International continues to warn: “Human rights defenders and others exercising their rights to freedom of expression and association were subjected to arbitrary arrest and detention, unfair trials leading to lengthy prison terms, and travel bans.”

Canada says no direct link

The position of the Canadian government has been that Canadian-made LAVs cannot be directly connected to these human rights abuses.

In February 2018, the Canadian Press reported: “The federal government has not been able to determine with any certainty that Canadian-made light-armoured vehicles sold to Saudi Arabia were used by that country to suppress the Shiite minority in the eastern part of the country. Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland confirmed that officials from her department did not find conclusive evidence that the Canadian-made vehicles have been used in human rights abuses.”

Ongoing concern

Project Ploughshares notes that Canada is contracted to produce 742 light armoured vehicles (LAVs) for Saudi Arabia. It adds that Canada has transferred 652 of these vehicles to the Saudi government since 2017. It also notes that 40 were transferred in 2023. If 40 were also transferred in 2024, that would suggest that 50 more LAVs could be exported to Saudi Arabia in 2025 and 2026.

We continue to follow this.