"Marines to Get New Amphibious Vehicles" Topic

A nearly 34-ton armored fighting vehicle – that swims? Marines will have a new Amphibious Combat Vehicle to storm the beaches in future battles.

Unveiled this week at the Modern Day Marine, the Amphibious Combat Vehicle, or the ACV 1.1, was created by BAE Systems and IVECO Defence. The vehicle combines a high degree of protection with amphibious and land capabilities…

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So we got a better made BTR-80 without any weapons, that's about stupid.

So we got a better made BTR-80 without any weapons, that's about stupid.

The article mentions enhanced gunner controls, so presumably the final version will be armed in some fashion.

Edit: Wikipedia page suggests it will be armed with a turret mounted M2, with the possibility of an M2/Mk 19 combo mount the AAV7A1 has now: link

Damon.

I read they're uparmoring their older LVTPs/AAVs too.

A pity only the Chinese and Russians have amphibious vehicles with larger, cannons on them.

Seems we've forgotten a few things since WWII.

They've been promising a replacement for the AAV 7 for 20-odd years now. The last new hull came off the line in 1982, so attrition may require it at some point sooner rather than later.

I really think we would have been better off spending the money to work all the bugs out of the EFV. I like its combination of speed, firepower, and passenger capacity.

The problem with the EFV was that antiship missile tech developed faster than people were expecting.

The original idea was to keep the gator freighters outside coastal defense range while the EFVs roared in on plane. But the new generation of antiship missiles have longer range than the EFV's swim range, so the gator freighters are still vulnerable.

Another issue with the beast is the fact that it has absolutely horrible fuel efficiency, caused by needing enough engine to make 35+tons plane. 2500 horsepower(!), which is nearly double that of an Abrams.

Those are all good points for why the EFV didn't work as envisioned, but if we are now pursuing a performance envelope not significantly different from our current AAV7…..we probably could have just dialed down the speed/hydroplane requirements for the EFV and used it as a "normal" amphibious AFV. Say, a 1000-1500hp unstressed powerplant and an 8-knot swim speed.

It would help if we had amphib ships that didn't cost a billion dollars. Something like the Soviet Ivan Rogov-class, perhaps? I think the LX(R) program might address this.