BAE wins Marine Corps contract to build new amphibious combat vehicle

Thank you CW5 Jack Cardwell for making us aware that British multinational defense, security, and aerospace company "AE Systems, along with teammate Iveco Defence Vehicles, prevailed in the Marine Corps’ robust competition for the next generation of vehicles to get the Marines from ship to shore to engage in land combat operations.
Background from hbusinesswire.com/news/home/ [login to see] 6486/en/BAE-Systems-Team-Wins-U.S.-Marine-Corps%E2%80%99
June 19, 2018 06:58 PM Eastern Daylight Time
STAFFORD, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The U.S. Marine Corps has awarded BAE Systems a $198 million contract to deliver an initial 30 Amphibious Combat Vehicles (ACV), with options for a total of 204 vehicles which could be worth up to $1.2 billion. BAE Systems, along with teammate Iveco Defence Vehicles, prevailed in the Marine Corps’ robust competition for the next generation of vehicles to get the Marines from ship to shore to engage in land combat operations.
“We are well positioned and ready to build the future of amphibious fighting vehicles for the Marine Corps, having already produced 16 prototypes”

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“We are well positioned and ready to build the future of amphibious fighting vehicles for the Marine Corps, having already produced 16 prototypes,” said Dean Medland, vice president and general manager of Combat Vehicles Amphibious and International at BAE Systems. “Through this award, we are proud to continue our partnership with the Marine Corps by providing a best-in-class vehicle to support its mission through mobility, survivability and lethality.”

The ACV provides exceptional mobility in all terrains, and blast mitigation protection for all three crew and 13 embarked Marines, along with other improvements over currently fielded systems. The new vehicle is an advanced 8x8 open ocean-capable vehicle that is equipped with a new 6-cylinder, 700HP engine, which provides a significant power increase over the Assault Amphibious Vehicle, which is currently in service and has been in operation for decades. The ACV is also adaptable to accommodate growth for future technologies or requirements.

The BAE Systems team conducted its own extensive risk mitigation testing and evaluation for land mobility, survivability, and swim capabilities that proved its vehicle’s performance prior to delivering the first 16 prototypes to the Marine Corps in 2017.

Over the past 15 months, the company supported the Marine Corps’ rigorous Developmental Testing and Operational Assessment of the vehicles, which performed superbly in water and land operations, payload, and survivability.

Work on the program will be performed at the company’s facilities in Aiken, South Carolina; Sterling Heights, Michigan; Minneapolis; Stafford; San Jose, California; and York, Pennsylvania.

The Marine Corps’ selection of BAE Systems for the ACV 1.1 program further solidifies the company’s 70-year legacy of providing superior amphibious vehicle capabilities to meet ship-to-objective and combat tactical lift objectives. As a leading provider of combat vehicles, the company has produced more than 100,000 systems for customers worldwide. Iveco is also a proven manufacturer of combat vehicles, having designed and built more than 30,000 multi-purpose, protected, and armored military vehicles in service today.



BAE has won a contract to build the Marine Corps’ new amphibious combat vehicle following a competitive evaluation period where BAE’s vehicle was pitted against an offering from SAIC.
The contract allows for the company to enter into low-rate initial production with 30 vehicles expected to be delivered by fall of 2019, valued at $198 million.
The Marines plan to field 204 of the vehicles. The total value of the contract with all options exercised is expected to amount to about $1.2 billion.
The awarding of the contract gets the Corps “one step closer to delivering this capability to the Marines,” John Garner, Program Executive Officer, Land Systems Marine Corps, said during a media round table held Tuesday.
But the Corps isn’t quite done refining its new ACV. The vehicle is expected to undergo incremental changes with added new requirements and modernization.
The Corps is already working on the requirements for ACV 1.2, which will include a lethality upgrade for the amphibious vehicle.
BAE’s ACV vehicle will eventually replace the Corps’ legacy amphibious vehicle, but through a phased approach. The Assault Amphibious Vehicle is currently undergoing survivability upgrades to keep the Cold War era vehicle ticking into 2035.
BAE Systems and SAIC were both awarded roughly $100 million each in November 2015 to deliver 16 prototypes to the Marine Corps for evaluation in anticipation of a down select to one vendor in 2018.
[BAE, SAIC Named as Finalists in Marines ACV Competition]
All government testing of the prototypes concluded the first week of December 2017 and the Marine Corps issued its request for proposals the first week in January 2018. Operational tests also began concurrently.
Government testing included land reliability testing, survivability and blast testing and water testing — both ship launch and recovery as well as surf transit.
Operational evaluations included seven prototypes each from both SAIC and BAE Systems, six participated and one spare was kept for backup.
BAE Systems’ partnered with Italian company Iveco Defense Vehicles to build its ACV offering.
[BAE Systems completes Amphibious Combat Vehicle shipboard testing]
Some of the features BAE believed were particularly attractive for a new ACV is that it has space for 13 embarked Marines and a crew of three, which keeps the rifle squad together. The engine’s strength is 690 horsepower over the old engine’s 560 horsepower, and it runs extremely quietly. The vehicle has a V-shaped hull to protect against underbody blasts, and the seat structure is completely suspended."
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/ [login to see] 6486/en/BAE-Systems-Team-Wins-U.S.-Marine-Corps%E2%80%99

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That story can’t be right. Marines are supposed to get everyone else’s hand me downs. If we start giving them new equipment, they will only break it.

Although, the Army stole the LAV from the Marines. Maybe this is a new trend...

I recall a time the Marines wanted an armored amphibious vehicle that could navigate 50 miles in the sea. They were smoking crack.