BAE Systems said Monday it has received a $169 million production order from the Marine Corps covering delivery of 33 more Amphibious Combat Vehicles (ACV).
The Lot 2 full-rate production order, officially awarded on Dec. 23, arrives as BAE Systems is set to complete deliveries of low-rate initial production (LRIP) ACVs by the end of this month.
“BAE Systems is dedicated to helping the Marines meet their expeditionary and Force Design 2030 needs,” John Swift, the company’s director of amphibious programs, said in a statement. “This follow-on contract is a testament to our commitment of getting this critical capability to the warfighter and supporting the Marine Corps’ priorities.”
The Marine Corps approved the ACV for full-rate production in December 2020 with a $184.4 million deal covering 36 vehicles, which was followed by a second Lot 1 full-rate production order in February 2021 worth another $184 million for 36 more of the base personnel variant of the vehicle. (Defense Daily, Feb. 11 2021).
Deliveries under the Lot 1 full-rate production deals are slated to begin this year, the company said previously, with BAE Systems noting on Monday the 100th LRIP ACV was delivered earlier this fall.
The Marine Corps is pursuing a family of vehicles approach for ACV, along with the base personnel platform, built around three additional variants: a turreted version (ACV-30), a command and control platform (ACV-C), and a recovery variant (ACV-R).
The Pentagon’s contract announcement on Dec. 23 noted the full ACV program is expected to total $3.4 billion with Swift previously telling Defense Daily the Marine Corps’ current acquisition objective for 632 vehicles will likely include around 30 ACV-Cs, 30 ACV-Rs and 150 ACV-30s.
BAE Systems delivered the first ACV-Cs to the Marine Corps early last year for testing and Swift told Defense Daily at the time an eventual production contract for the variant is likely to be awarded in 2023 and would cover about 30 vehicles (Defense Daily, Feb. 18 2021).
The Marine Corps also previously awarded BAE Systems a design and development contract for the ACV-30, with the company selecting Kongsberg in May 2020 to provide its Medium Caliber Turret-30mm for the vehicle variant (Defense Daily, May 13 2020).
“In addition, BAE Systems has received task instructions from the U.S. Marine Corps to complete a study of incorporating Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle Command, Control, Communication and Computers/Unmanned Aerial Systems mission payload into an Amphibious Combat Vehicle variant,” the company wrote in a statement Monday.