On October 29, 2019, BAE Systems has received a $120 million contract from the U.S. Marine Corps for additional Amphibious Combat Vehicles under the third order for Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) of Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV) program initiated by the U.S. Marine Corps Systems Command.

The BAE Systems’ ACV is anew generation of wheeled amphibious armored vehicle jointly developed and designed by Italian Company IVECO and American Company BAE Systems. (Picture source BAE Systems)

The Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV) is a program initiated by the U.S. Marine Corps Systems Command to procure an amphibious assault vehicle for the United States Marine Corps to supplement and ultimately replace the aging Assault Amphibious Vehicle, official designation AAVP-7A1.

This award is an important next step on the path to full-rate production. This latest contract is for the ACV personnel carrier variant (ACV-P), an eight-wheeled amphibious assault vehicle capable of transporting Marines from open-ocean ship to shore and conducting land operations. Each vehicle embarks 13 Marines in addition to a crew of three.

“This award further validates the Marine Corps’ confidence in the vehicle’s proven capability in meeting their amphibious mission and represents an important step toward fielding the vehicle in the Fleet Marine Force. The ACV is a highly mobile, survivable and adaptable platform designed for growth to meet future mission role requirements while bringing enhanced combat power to the battlefield,” said John Swift, director of amphibious programs at BAE Systems.

Current low-rate production is focused on the ACV-P variant. More variants will be added under full-rate production to include the command and control (ACV-C), 30mm medium caliber turret (ACV-30) and recovery variants (ACV-R) under the ACV Family of Vehicles program. BAE Systems previously received the Lot 1 and Lot 2 awards.

On 24 November 2015, the Marines selected the BAE Systems SuperAV and SAIC Terrex to move on to the engineering and manufacturing development phase of the ACV 1.1 program, beating out Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, and Advanced Defense Vehicle Systems. The Marine Corps valued swim operations, land operations, carrying capability, and force protection equally in the selection process, but the two winners were chosen for emphasis focused on amphibious swim capability since the ACV is "fundamentally an amphibious vehicle." Each company was awarded a contract to build 16 vehicles by late 2016, 13 initially and three more when funding becomes available, with testing beginning in early 2017 and lasting one year. A winner is planned to be selected in 2018 to build 204 vehicles, with the first entering service in 2020 and all delivered by 2023.