By Carlo Munoz
The Marine Corps is seeking support for possible foreign military sales of ship hulls used as the base for the service’s amphibious fleet, according to a recent service notice issued to industry.
The sources sought notice posted on FedBizOpps.gov on Friday by Marine Corps Systems Command is requesting industry participation for “an anticipated partnership” with an unnamed foreign country for “modifications on the Amphibious Assault Vehicle hull.”
Command spokesperson Lt. Jamie Larson declined to name the country service officials are looking to establish the partnership with. “At the moment we are not prepared to identify the country that could be receiving the hulls,” Larson said in an e-mail to Defense Daily.
While SYSCOM officials have no official request for proposals (RFP) in the works, the tentative plan will be to provide a total of 26 AAV vehicle hulls–22 AAV P7A1s, two AAV R7A1s and two AAV C7A1s — to the country via a foreign military sale, according to the notice.
In turn, the country will ship 26 of their own AAV hulls to Marine Corps Logistics Command for modification work to accept a “modified suspension system and a new engine,” the solicitation adds. “There is the potential for the contractor to actually procure and possibly install upgrade components or kits containing the upgrade components,” it states, noting that the service’s logistics command “does not have the facilities to perform the required changes to the AAV hull.”
The program will be financed under the Marine Corps “AV Reliability, Availability and Maintainability/Rebuild To Standard (RAM/RS)” program. Industry responses are due to the service by March 25, according to Larson. Once those responses are reviewed, service officials will then decide whether to issue an RFP, the spokesperson added.
The timing of the AAV foreign sales comes as the Marine Corps is looking to revamp its entire amphibious fleet in preparation for a new vehicle set to enter service.
Navy acquisition officials issued three separate requests for information (RFI) on Monday for modernization work on the AAV, as well as follow-on acquisition of the Marine Personnel Carrier and development work on the new Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV) (Defense Daily, Feb. 23).
ACV development was kicked off after Defense Secretary Robert Gates canceled work on the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle earlier this year.
The plan, according to Navy acquisition chief Sean Stackley, will be to place management of all three programs under a “tactical vehicle” lead within the service. Under such an approach, all three efforts would essentially be managed “as [if] they were a single program,” he said after his Feb. 17 speech at an Aviation Week-sponsored defense technology symposium in Washington.
Even though plans to modernize the current AAV fleet and extend MPC buys were already in the works, consolidation of those efforts with the new ACV would expedite that new replacement effort.
Under a tactical vehicle lead, program officials working the individual elements of the effort can share information and lessons learned faster, which would inform the requirements development and design process for the ACV (Defense Daily, Feb. 18).