Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
The Marine Corps is looking for additional defense contractors capable of producing two future Amphibious Combat Vehicle variants, although the service cannot share the vehicles' technical data package with prospective builders.
A sources-sought notice published earlier this month makes clear that BAE Systems -- which holds a contract for the ACV and is in the process of delivering the first two variants -- owns the rights to the ACV technical data package.
As a result, prospective builders are required to demonstrate their ability to manufacture, deliver and provide fielding support for two variants that maintain commonality with the existing family of vehicles, without the use of ACV design data.
The government will not provide “vehicles as Government Furnished Equipment to modify an existing vehicle,” the notice adds.
The sources-sought notice applies to two planned vehicle variants in the ACV family of systems: a 30mm gun variant (ACV-30) and a command-and-control variant (ACV-C).
BAE is currently working to deliver command-and-control and personnel variants to the Marine Corps. The service is buying 13 ACV-Cs and 57 ACV-Ps at a total cost of $527 million in fiscal year 2023, and is looking to buy 80 more ACV-Ps in FY-24.
According to the notice, the new ACV-30 and ACV-R variants must maintain commonality with the existing family of vehicles across the drivetrain, powertrain, water propulsion, hull underbody, armor system, suspension system, steering system, braking system, driver’s station and vehicle commander’s station.
Prospective producers must have the ability to deliver ACV-30 and ACV-R vehicles for fielding beginning in the third quarter of FY-26 and ending no later than the fourth quarter of FY-29, the notice states. Desired vehicle quantities are listed as up to 175 ACV-30s and 34 ACV-Rs.
In April, a BAE spokesman told reporters the company had completed design work for the ACV-30 and is transitioning to production with the goal of delivering three “production- representative test cases” to the Marine Corps in early 2024 for test and evaluation. BAE plans to deliver ACV-R prototypes in early 2025.