U.S. Marines Select GDLS and Textron for Next-Gen Amphibious Recon Vehicle to Replace LAV-25.

The U.S. Marine Corps has selected General Dynamics Land Systems and Textron Systems to build next-generation prototypes for its Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle program, accelerating a decisive shift to networked, amphibious reconnaissance for future littoral combat.

Contracts awarded April 2 cover the ARV-C4UAS, ARV-30, and ARV-LOG variants, with deliveries due by late fiscal 2028 and a production decision set for early 2031. The program underpins the Corps’ transition to Mobile Reconnaissance Battalions under Force Design, replacing the legacy LAV-25 with an integrated system designed to operate across dispersed maritime battlefields.

Read also: U.S. Marine Corps ARV-30mm Validates Sea-to-Shore Combat with 30mm Turret.

U.S. Marines have advanced the ARV competition by selecting General Dynamics Land Systems and Textron Systems for the next prototype phase, as the Corps seeks a fast, networked and amphibious reconnaissance vehicle to replace the LAV-25 and support future littoral operations (Picture source: U.S. DoW).

The Marine Corps says deliveries are expected in 4QFY28, with a production decision in 1QFY31, tying the competition directly to Force Design’s transition from Light Armored Reconnaissance battalions to Mobile Reconnaissance Battalions. In other words, this is now a force-structure program, not merely a vehicle contest.

The U.S. terms of reference, the practical design brief both teams must satisfy, is unusually clear. The ARV must be highly mobile, networked, transportable, protected and lethal; smaller and lighter than the ACV-30; capable of shore-to-shore and open-water mobility; and built around advanced sensors, communications and command systems rather than armor mass alone. Marine Corps requirement language and a Congressional Research Service summary add a medium-caliber automatic cannon, anti-armor capability, precision effects beyond direct-fire range, modern C2, electronic warfare growth, organic unmanned systems, active and passive protection, and robust cross-country mobility. Early industry discussions also framed the vehicle around an 18.5-ton class so four could fit on an LCAC or Ship-to-Shore Connector, a target Textron’s published Cottonmouth data still broadly reflects.

Why the Marines want such an armament-heavy reconnaissance platform is equally important. Force Design 2030 shifted the Corps away from a force optimized for long inland campaigns toward one built for peer competition, especially in the Indo-Pacific, where units must operate with lower signature, longer sensing reach, tighter naval integration and greater ability to support sea denial from land. The 2022 and 2025 Force Design updates are explicit that reliance on armored vehicles alone is too limiting in littoral terrain; what is needed is all-domain mobile reconnaissance that can see beyond line of sight, connect to kill webs and enable small units to sense, decide and shoot faster than the enemy.

That explains how the Corps intends to use the ARV family. The C4UAS variant is the battlefield “quarterback,” a manned hub linking onboard and off-board sensors, tethered and untethered unmanned aircraft, and eventually robotic ground and water systems. The ARV-30 is the armed scout and direct-fire enabler for the reconnaissance deep fight. The logistics version is not an afterthought: in distributed expeditionary operations, sustainment vehicles determine whether reconnaissance units can remain hidden, mobile and lethal after first contact.

Textron’s Cottonmouth remains the more publicly defined contender. The company describes it as a clean-sheet design begun in 2019 and publishes unusually detailed performance data: two crew plus five embarked Marines, 295 inches long, 115 inches wide, 147 inches high, 37,000 pounds gross vehicle weight, land speed above 65 mph, swim speed above 5 knots, and surf-zone performance in waves over four feet. Textron also states that four vehicles can fit on LCAC/SSC connectors, that the platform is self-deployable for amphibious operations, and that its Modular Open Systems Architecture is intended to ease future payload integration. Under its award, Textron disclosed it will deliver 16 Cottonmouth pre-production vehicles, three systems integration labs and four blast hulls.

Operationally, Cottonmouth is optimized less as a miniature infantry carrier than as a naval sensor node. Textron says the C4UAS variant is designed to transform how Marines communicate and fight, serving as the crewed base for robotic and autonomous integration, while the 30 mm version adds direct fire support and anti-armor capability. The key point is that Textron is offering a reconnaissance platform whose mobility envelope, connector compatibility and sensor-centric architecture are as central to combat value as the gun itself.

GDLS has released fewer dimensional details, but its concept emphasis is clear. Its C4/UAS prototype is built around a Next Generation Electronic Architecture with growth margins, modular open architecture, artificial-intelligence functionality and future control of robotic systems. The company is also stressing digital maintenance, prognostic health monitoring and a Digital Training System, which is an important indicator that GDLS is pitching ARV not just as a vehicle, but as a more supportable reconnaissance ecosystem. Its 30 mm variant has already completed land mobility, lethality, ocean swim and even cold-weather swim testing, suggesting a strong focus on environmental robustness and technical maturity.

The armament choice matters: the legacy LAV-25 remains an effective reconnaissance vehicle and Marine doctrine still credits its 25 mm cannon with defeating light armor such as BMPs and BTRs, but the Corps has long acknowledged that the platform’s service life ends in the mid-2030s and that it cannot absorb the level of electronics, unmanned teaming and survivability demanded by the future fight. The ARV-30, by contrast, is meant to combine a 30 mm autocannon, anti-armor effects and a full sensor-and-network suite, allowing recon elements not only to find threats but also to hand them off, strike them or cue joint fires while remaining mobile in coastal terrain.

Compared with what the U.S. fields today, the ARV is intended to sit between the LAV-25 and the ACV-30 rather than duplicate either. The LAV-25 is a lighter legacy scout centered on the M242 25 mm gun; the ACV-30 is a much larger 35-ton amphibious assault vehicle optimized for infantry support and able to embark eight infantry Marines, while the broader ACV family is the Marine infantry battalion’s principal ship-to-shore tactical mobility system. The ARV, by contrast, is supposed to be smaller and lighter than ACV-30, more reconnaissance-focused than ACV, and far more digitally integrated than the LAV it replaces. It is, in essence, a scout, sensor node and precision-effects enabler in one package.

The acquisition model also deserves attention. The Marines are using stand-alone OTAs and a second rapid-prototyping phase because they want to preserve competition while driving down technical risk before the production down-select. That approach reflects a broader lesson from Ukraine, the Red Sea, and Indo-Pacific planning alike: reconnaissance platforms now have to evolve almost as quickly as networks and drones do. A conventional acquisition cycle would have locked the Corps into answers before the requirements for unmanned integration, digital sustainment and coastal survivability had fully matured.

For the Marine Corps, then, the ARV is not a replacement vehicle in the narrow sense; it is a bet that the next reconnaissance fight will be won by the formation that closes the sensor-to-shooter loop first while surviving inside the enemy’s engagement zone. That is why this competition matters more than a caliber upgrade. Whichever team wins will shape how Marine Mobile Reconnaissance Battalions scout, screen, target and persist in the littorals for the next generation, an evolution that can be connected to previous coverage of the ACV-30, Force Design 2030, and Marine Corps organic precision fires and unmanned integration.

Written by Evan Lerouvillois, Defense Analyst.

Evan studied International Relations, and quickly specialized in defense and security. He is particularly interested in the influence of the defense sector on global geopolitics, and analyzes how technological innovations in defense, arms export contracts, and military strategies influence the international geopolitical scene.