June 20, 2018 | International, Land
WASHINGTON — BAE Systems has won a contract to build the Marine Corps' new amphibious combat vehicle following a competitive evaluation period where BAE's vehicle was pitted against an offering from SAIC.
The contract allows for the company to enter into low-rate initial production with 30 vehicles expected to be delivered by fall of 2019, valued at $198 million.
The Marines plan to field 204 of the vehicles. The total value of the contract with all options exercised is expected to amount to about $1.2 billion.
The awarding of the contract gets the Corps “one step closer to delivering this capability to the Marines,” John Garner, Program Executive Officer, Land Systems Marine Corps, said during a media round table held Tuesday.
But the Corps isn't quite done refining its new ACV. The vehicle is expected to undergo incremental changes with added new requirements and modernization.
The Corps is already working on the requirements for ACV 1.2, which will include a lethality upgrade for the amphibous vehicle.
BAE's ACV vehicle will eventually replace the Corps' legacy amphibious vehicle, but through a phased approach. The Assault Amphibious Vehicle is currently undergoing survivability upgrades to keep the Cold War era vehicle ticking into 2035.
BAE Systems and SAIC were both awarded roughly $100 million each in November 2015 to deliver 16 prototypes to the Marine Corps for evaluation in anticipation of a down select to one vendor in 2018.
[BAE, SAIC Named as Finalists in Marines ACV Competition]
All government testing of the prototypes concluded the first week of December 2017 and the Marine Corps issued its request for proposals the first week in January 2018. Operational tests also began concurrently.
Government testing included land reliability testing, survivability and blast testing and water testing — both ship launch and recovery as well as surf transit.
Operational evaluations included seven prototypes each from both SAIC and BAE Systems, six participated and one spare was kept for backup.
BAE Systems' partnered with Italian company Iveco Defense Vehicles to build its ACV offering.
[BAE Systems completes Amphibious Combat Vehicle shipboard testing]
Some of the features BAE believed were particularly attractive for a new ACV is that it has space for 13 embarked Marines and a crew of three, which keeps the rifle squad together. The engine's strength is 690 horsepower over the old engine's 560 horsepower, and it runs extremely quietly. The vehicle has a V-shaped hull to protect against underbody blasts, and the seat structure is completely suspended.
SAIC's vehicle, which was built in Charleston, South Carolina, offered improved traction through a central tire-inflation system to automatically increase or decrease tire pressure. It also had a V-hull certified during tests at the Nevada Automotive Test Center — where all prototypes were tested by the Marine Corps — and had blast-mitigating seats to protect occupants.
The 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion, 1st Marine Division out of Camp Pendleton, California, is expected to receive the first ACV 1.1 vehicles.
April 18, 2023 | International, Land
CAVS, originally established by Finland and Latvia, is a joint programme of multiple governments to introduce a state-of-the-art new armoured vehicle system
May 5, 2020 | International, Aerospace
SMi Reports: Royal Air Force's Wing Commander Judith Graham to brief on RPAS Capabilities at UAV Technology, this September. 05/04/20, 05:43 AM | Unmanned & Other Topics In recent news, the UK Royal Air Force is set to integrate the new Protector UAS, replacing the current Reaper models in service. As armed forces continue to invest in UAV developments, where remote combat UAS and ISR capabilities have solidified their importance to modern military operations, the RAF plans to acquire 16 Protectors by 2024.*With that said, SMi Group's 5th annual UAV Technology conference, reconvening on 28th and 29th September 2020 in London, UK and will further investigate RPAS capabilities. The 2020 event promises to provide a comprehensive overview of the latest wingmen programmes, long range ISR capabilities, regulation, counter-UAS technology and more. For Interested parties, there is an early bird saving of £300 for bookings made by 29th May. Register at http://www.uav-technology.org/robtomPR2 The Royal Air Force's Remotely Piloted Air Systems Programme Manager, Wing Commander Judith Graham will be providing an exclusive keynote presentation on ‘Transforming the Royal Air Force's RPAS Capabilities' covering: • Progress in delivering the Protector Remotely Piloted Air System to the Royal Air Force and testing the limits of the platform. • Advancing towards Airspace Integration and Certification. • Operational advantage of the Protector and how this will be leveraged in future operational planning, including Brimstone missiles, and upgraded sensor packages. • Looking further ahead: what part will the Protector play in future conflict both against near-peer and irregular adversaries. Delegates attending Europe's leading conference dedicated to UAV development will learn from high profile UK and international military speakers as they meet and share their insight and experiences with UAV technologies. For the full speakers and the programme, visit: http://www.uav-technology.org/robtomPR2 UAV Technology 28th - 29th September 2020 London, UK Sponsored by: AeroVironment, Fizoptika, Leonardo and Mynaric For sponsorship and exhibition queries please contact Justin Predescu jpredescu@smi-online.co.uk or call +44 (0) 20 7827 6130 For delegate queries please contact James Hitchen jhitchen@smi-online.co.uk or call +44(0)207 827 6054 For media queries please contact Carina Gozo at CGozo@smi-online.co.uk. *‘ RAF unveils deadly new Protector drone armed with ‘game-changing technology' (Express: August, 2019) https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1169075/raf-news-drone-protector-drone-high-tech-armed-surveillance-aircraft --END— About SMi Group: Established since 1993, the SMi Group is a global event-production company that specializes in Business-to-Business Conferences, Workshops, Masterclasses and online Communities. We create and deliver events in the Defence, Security, Energy, Utilities, Finance and Pharmaceutical industries. We pride ourselves on having access to the world's most forward thinking opinion leaders and visionaries, allowing us to bring our communities together to Learn, Engage, Share and Network. More information can be found at http://www.smi-online.co.uk https://www.roboticstomorrow.com/news/2020/05/04/top-royal-air-force-representative-to-present-at-uav-technology-2020/15214/
October 10, 2018 | International, C4ISR
By: Mark Pomerleau The Army is nearing the finalization of its first set of requirements for a vehicle-based assured position, navigation and timing solution. The six- to seven-page capabilities requirements document is waiting signature from Army leadership, Willie Nelson, director of the assured-PNT cross-functional team, said Oct. 9 at the Association of the United States Army annual meeting in Washington, D.C. Nelson described this feat as a somewhat watershed moment for the Army because the service has been trying for years to compete a requirements document. Previously, the approach was trying to come up with a systems-of-systems approach for the entire Army that ended up being too big and too expensive. Now, the approach is to break off smaller chunks to be more manageable. This includes a mounted requirement, which is completed and awaiting signature, a dismounted requirement, which is also nearly complete, as well as others. The program managers are now using rapid equipping contracting vehicles to get after solutions in this space immediately. Nelson also said the plan for engaging industry is to ask for specific solutions within each of the position, navigation and timing sectors as opposed to only something that addresses all the above. “I break it down because I think everybody has an area within that. Maybe you've got a specialty area where you've got a unique or innovative capability that can help in one of these areas, we're all ears,” he said. The Army is planning an industry day in Austin, Texas, for February or March where it plans to provide industry with technical and program or record roadmaps in the the mounted, dismounted and aerial spheres of assured-PNT realm. https://www.c4isrnet.com/digital-show-dailies/ausa/2018/10/09/the-army-finally-knows-what-it-needs-to-help-gps-denied-troops