The Marine Corps on Monday published Monday an updated solicitation for its future amphibious vehicle, which is designed to replace the aging fleet of Amphibious Assault Vehicles in service since the 1970s.
The solicitation for the Amphibious Combat Vehicle 1.1 outlines the service's requirements for what should be just the first in a line of future amphibious vehicles that will carry Marines ashore and transport them inland.
ACV 1.1 has met criticism because it will likely be a displacement hull vehicle, meaning it bobs through the water at a low-rate of speed. Some say that makes it ineffective in an age when Navy ships deploying Marines ashore must remain up to 100 miles off shore to guard against shore-based missiles.
But the Marine Corps has ferociously defended the ACV whose published request for proposal calls for a wheeled vehicle leaders argue is well suited to move quickly across land where the majority of missions will take place.
Envisioned as an eight-wheeled vehicle costing up to $7.5 million each, it would seat at least 10 Marines and their combat loads and handle 2-foot waves.
Earlier attempts to replace the AAV failed after immense cost and schedule overruns. Those efforts included the defunct Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, in development since the 1980s, which could plane across water at a high rate of speed, but ultimately fell victim to budget cuts and program delays.
Under the updated RFP, updated Monday, the Marine Corps will likely award multiple contracts. Top competitors include SAIC, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics Land Systems and BAE Systems. The immediate plan calls for outfitting six battalions with 200 ACVs by 2023, and modernizing enough AAVs to outfit another four battalions. That would give the service the ability to put 10 battalions ashore during a forcible entry operation.
Later versions of the ACV will offer more robust capabilities including more internal capacity and possibly eventually even possible high water speed as the service once sought in the EFV.
