Saturday, November 28, 2015

The BAE/IVECO SuperAV will be the new Landing Vehicle Wheeled (LVW-1) for the USMC.


You know by now that SAIC/Singapore Kinetics Terrex 2 and BAE/Iveco SuperAV were downselected in the USMC's ACV competition.

What you might not realize is "how right" the Marines finally got things.  Check this out from USNI News (March 2015).
Increment 1.1 was meant to have the ground protection Marines needed and would go ashore via surface connectors. Increment 1.2 would have a self-deploying capability at least equal to the 40-year-old Amphibious Assault Vehicles (AAVs) used today. And the third increment, if ever exercised, would add the high water speed capability that would allow it to plane over the top of the water instead of swimming through it.
What has me cheering for once is the fact that the ACV is turning out to be more than the old Marine Personnel Carrier Concept.  It is indeed shaping up as a real replacement for the AAV.  Even better?  We're not going to have to wait till 2020-something to start a new competition to fulfill the requirement to swim from ship to shore.

The BAE/Iveco model has been designed with the AAV replacement in mind from the start and it looks like the SAIC/Singapore Kinetics reskinned the Terrex to provide that same ability.

That's why BAE and SAIC got downselected while the Lockheed and General Dynamics models are on the outside looking in.

Those companies appear to have focused more on the MPC part...more on the wheeled IFV part of things instead of remembering that their customer was the United States Marine Corps and swim would be important too.

But I want to point out one part of this old USNI News article that actually tells us  who the ultimate winner will be...
Many of the competitors, “instead of [focusing] on just putting 10 seats for the 1.1, most of them are focused on ending up with 12 to 13 seats, for example. The swim quality, instead of focusing on the lower threshold requirement of, say, a level of 2 feet significant wave height, they’re actually focusing on building the vehicle to be able [to swim] at three [feet],” he said.
The SAIC vehicle has 11 seats.  The BAE has 13.  Swim ability will be equal to the AAV for both vehicles as will blast protection.  BAE will NOT be beat on price and they're ready to roll into full rate production now.

That's why I can call it today.  The BAE/Iveco SuperAV will be selected as the new Landing Vehicle Wheeled (LVW-1) for the USMC.

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