The US Marine Corps has awarded British defense company BAE Systems a contract modification for the second lot of full-rate production of amphibious combat vehicles (ACVs).
The company was awarded the first full-rate ACV production Lot 1 contract option in December 2020 for the first 36 vehicles and the second option in February of 2021 for an additional 36 vehicles.
Additionally, the ACV team delivered the 100th low-rate initial production (LRIP) ACV to the Marine Corps and is on schedule to complete LRIP deliveries by January 2022, as ACV fielding to the Fleet Marine Forces continues on time and budget.
As for the ACV, it is a highly mobile, survivable, and adaptable platform for conducting rapid ship-to-shore operations and brings enhanced combat power to the battlefield. The new contract for 33 vehicles is valued at $169 million.
BAE Systems is already under contract to deliver two variants of the ACV family of vehicles to the Marine Corps: the ACV personnel variant (ACV-P) and the ACV command variant (ACV-C). The company has also received a design and development contract for a 30mm cannon variant (ACV-30), and a recovery vehicle (ACV-R) is also planned.
In addition, the firm has received task instructions from the US Marine Corps to complete a study of incorporating advanced reconnaissance vehicle command, control, communication and computers/unmanned aerial systems mission payload into an ACV variant.