Marine Corps receives first 18 ACVs

The Marine Corps has received the first 18 Amphibious Combat Vehicles that are replacing the service's Vietnam-era Assault Amphibious Vehicle.

The program office delivered the first ACVs to the I Marine Expeditionary Force on Nov. 4, Barb Hamby, a spokeswoman for the Marine Corps, told Inside Defense Tuesday.

A full-rate production decision for the program is expected this month after a two-month delay related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Initial operational testing and evaluation for the program started in June and wrapped up in September.

The program successfully completed an adversarial assessment in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2020, Hamby said.

During the adversarial assessment, a Marine Corps red team assessed multiple cyber-related attack vectors, Hamby said.

"No major issues were identified," Hamby said.