US Marine Corps selects Textron and General Dynamics for Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle pre-award.

According to information released by the United States Department of Defense (DoD) on July 16, 2021, the U.S. Marine Corps selected Textron Systems and General Dynamics Land Systems for Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle pre-award and will begin negotiations for Other Transaction Agreement awards of ARV prototypes. Pending successful negotiations, Army Contracting Command – Detroit Arsenal will award the ARV OTAs utilizing the Ground Vehicle Systems OTA with the National Advanced Mobility Consortium.
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Purpose-built for the United States Marine Corps Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle (ARV) program, the new Cottonmouth ARV is a recon vehicle to be feared. (Picture source Textron)

A key Fleet Marine Force modernization initiative, the ARV Command, Control, Communications and Computers/Unmanned Aerial Systems will host a suite of C4 equipment, sensors, and operate both tethered and untethered UAS.

The ARV C4/UAS will employ an effective mix of reconnaissance, surveillance, target acquisition, and C4 systems to sense and communicate. These systems will enable ARV to serve as the manned hub of a manned/unmanned team and deliver next-generation, multi-domain, mobile reconnaissance capabilities.

Program Manager Light Armored Vehicles, located at the Detroit Arsenal, Michigan, manages the ARV effort. PM LAV falls within the portfolio of programs managed by the USMC Program Executive Officer Land Systems, Quantico, Virginia.

The period of performance for the agreements is 22 months, with prototype delivery expected in the first quarter of the fiscal year 2023 and six months of government evaluation that will complete in the third quarter.

The Marine Corps is working to validate the ARV requirement to serve as a mobile-protected hub of manned capability with the C4 to effectively operate robotic autonomous systems-enabled teams through a competitive prototyping effort with multiple industry partners.

The effort gained momentum following an industry engagement held in
December 2020. PM LAV solicited proposals for prototypes through the consortium on March 30, 2021. The Marine Corps received responses on May 3 and promptly began evaluations.

In parallel to competitive prototyping, the Marine Corps is also pursuing an effort to define the trade space of a government off-the-shelf solution using the Amphibious Combat Vehicle. The data from the ARV competitive prototyping efforts and the ACV study will jointly inform a Marine Corps decision point in the fiscal year 2023.

General Dynamics Land Systems announced they submitted an Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle (ARV) proposal. GDLS was likely to submit its LAV-II DVH 8x8 vehicle, which had been shown at Bushmaster User Conference. (Picture source Twitter Ronkainen)