The Marine Corps is nearing awards to General Dynamics Land Systems [GD] and Textron Systems
[TXT] to build 30mm turreted versions of their Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle (ARV) prototypes, as the service also eyes moving the new combat vehicle program into the engineering and manufacturing development phase in fiscal year 2026.
A pair of notices published last week announced the Marine Corps’ intent to task the two firms with each building one ARV Medium Caliber Autocannon (ARV-30) prototype and awards are expected in the second quarter of this fiscal year, a spokesperson for Program Executive Office-Land Systems (PEO LS) confirmed to Defense Daily.
“The prototyping plan for the ARV-30 is currently under review with PEO Land Systems. We will be able to provide more information once approved,” the PEO LS spokesperson said.
An earlier Request for Information notice from November detailed the Marine Corps’ interest in ARV prototype that integrates a 30mm gun and turret, noting subsequent development contracts would each be worth up to $17.5 million.
Both GD Land Systems and Textron built ARVs for the current competitive prototyping program, which have undergone testing over the last year to help inform requirements for the Marine Corps’ effort to find a replacement for its legacy Light Armored Vehicles.
GD Land Systems officials recently detailed the slate of prototype testing and events from last year, while noting that further risk reduction efforts to inform ARV requirements were planned for this year (Defense Daily, Jan. 19).
BAE Systems had also been participating in a study to inform ARV requirements with a version of its Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV) integrated with a suite of C4/UAS capabilities, while that effort formally concluded in late FY ‘23.
The PEO Land Systems spokesperson said the study helped the Marine Corps decide it would need a new purpose-built platform for ARV rather than a modified version of an existing vehicle, such as the ACV.
“The emerging ACV capability promises excellent ship-to-objective mobility for Marine Corps infantry; however, a fully amphibious ship-to-shore capable armored personnel carrier is not required, nor optimally designed, to meet ARV and mobile reconnaissance missions needs,” the spokesperson told Defense Daily.
BAE Systems had previously said it viewed the ARV program as a potential opportunity to build out additional variants of the ACV (Defense Daily, May 11 2022).
“We are proud of the accomplishments that our team has made to provide the Marine Corps with a new Amphibious Combat Vehicle capability, the [C4/UAS], that integrates cutting-edge technology on a highly mobile, survivable, and cost-effective platform being fielded today. We will continue to invest in and provide the best amphibious capability possible to meet the amphibious mission needs of our armed forces,” Garrett Lacaillade, vice president of BAE Systems’ amphibious vehicles product line, told Defense Daily this week.
The Marine Corps is pursuing a family of vehicles approach for ACV, which includes the base personnel platform and a command and control platform (ACV-C) currently in full-rate production, a recovery variant (ACV-R) in design and development and the first ACV-30 turreted variant test vehicles having been delivered earlier this year (Defense Daily, Feb. 1).
“The ACV family of vehicles delivers incredible capability to our nation’s military and we will continue to look for opportunities to utilize the platform’s flexibility to incorporate additional capabilities or future technologies to keep them one step ahead of the competition,” Lacaillade said.
The PEO LS spokesperson said the Marine Corps is planning to release a Request for Proposals in the second quarter of FY ‘25 for ARV’s EMD phase, before holding a full and open competition leading to an award in FY ‘26.
When asked if the EMD contract will go to a single vendor, the spokesperson said “multiple courses of action are under consideration.”
Along with its interest in an initial C4/UAS and 30mm turreted versions of the ARV, the spokesperson confirmed the Marine Corps plans to pursue additional variants including a counter-drone, precision fires and recovery configurations.
A previously announced industry day to discuss the EMD phase that was planned for February has also been postponed to later in FY ‘24, the spokesperson said.