As the Marine Corps moves its Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle program toward the engineering and manufacturing development phase and narrows in on requirements for a family of six vehicle variants, two companies remain standing in the prototyping competition that will decide the maker of this next-generation family of vehicles.
Contractors General Dynamics Land Systems and Textron Systems each delivered an ARV prototype to the Marine Corps in early fiscal year 2023 and spent the remainder of the year running a gauntlet of government-directed tests to assess the vehicles' survivability, land and water mobility as well as command, control, communications and computer/uncrewed aerial systems (C4UAS) capabilities.
While both companies continue to mature these initial prototypes, they are also anticipating the production of a new 30mm cannon ARV prototype and preparing for a Feb. 29 industry day where the Marine Corps is expected to provide more information on the upcoming EMD phase.
The service is now planning to develop a vehicle family of six mission role variants, program office spokesperson David Jordan confirmed to Inside Defense. In addition to the C4UAS variant currently under development, this family will include 30mm cannon, organic precision fires, logistics, counter-UAS and recovery variants.
These vehicles will become the primary platforms supporting the new mobile reconnaissance battalions -- a reimagined recon unit intended to provide improved mobility, lethality and technical capabilities as part of the Marine Corps’ force design pivot.
Procurement is scheduled to begin FY-28 with initial operational capability following in FY-30, according to budget documents, which request $63.6 million in continuing research and development funding for the program in FY-24.
The Marine Corps is expected to release a request for proposals in the second quarter of FY-25 to advance the program into the EMD phase, with a contract award following in FY-26.
One contractor down
While Textron and General Dynamics advance, the Marine Corps has ended its evaluation of a third prototype vehicle produced by BAE Systems.
In FY-23, the service tested a modified version of BAE’s Amphibious Combat Vehicle to determine whether the existing ACV could serve as the basis for the ARV program. According to Jordan, this parallel effort has been discontinued in favor of the “purpose-built” alternatives provided by the other two companies.
“The combination of competitive prototyping results, ACV fielding and training lessons learned, and Force Design decisions regarding multidomain reconnaissance strongly favor the development of a purpose-built combat vehicle to meet the requirements of our future mobile reconnaissance battalions,” Jordan said.
In the ARV competition, BAE’s modified ACV prototype had the advantage of having already demonstrated several program requirements including survivability, ocean swim and land mobility. As an existing Marine Corps program of record, the ACV also had the benefit of an active production line -- BAE delivered 72 ACVs to the Marine Corps in FY-23 and is expected to produce 80 more in FY-24.
But at approximately 35 tons, the ACV is heavier and larger than the other two companies’ prototypes. General Dynamics’ initial vehicle weighed in at just under 30,000 pounds empty, company executives said last year. The Marine Corps’ initial ARV size and weight requirements indicate that four of the vehicles must fit on a ship-to-shore connector vessel.
“The emerging ACV capability promises excellent ship-to-objective mobility for Marine Corps infantry; however, a fully amphibious ship-to-shore capable armored personnel carrier is not required, nor optimally designed, to meet ARV and mobile reconnaissance mission needs,” Jordan said.
In a statement shared with Inside Defense, BAE acknowledged the conclusion of its ARV prototyping effort.
“We are proud of the accomplishments that our team has made to provide the Marine Corps with a new Amphibious Combat Vehicle variant, the Command, Control, Communication, Computers/Unmanned Aerial Systems (C4/UAS), that integrates cutting-edge technology on a highly mobile, survivable, and cost-effective platform being fielded today,” a BAE spokesperson said. “We will continue to invest in and provide the best amphibious capability possible to meet the amphibious mission needs of our armed forces.”
ARV-30 and beyond
The Marine Corps has not yet awarded contracts for ARV-30 prototyping, but both Textron and General Dynamics are gearing up to design and build the new vehicle variant. A November sources-sought notice signals the service’s intent to issue two awards for the ARV-30, each worth up to $17.5 million.
General Dynamics has already started to design an ARV-30 prototype “based on anticipating the [Marine Corps’] requirements,” according to company executive Phil Skuta, who said he expects to receive an ARV-30 contract by early to mid-spring.
The Marine Corps declined to provide further information on the schedule for ARV-30 prototyping, telling Inside Defense the effort is currently under review with the program executive officer.
Textron has not started developing the ARV-30 but is “discussing” the platform with the Marine Corps as it awaits further information, according to David Phillips, the company’s senior vice president for land and sea systems.
“Certainly, we have our internal research and development things that we prioritize, and this is a very, very high-priority program for us. But for the record, we are only discussing that with the Marine Corps right now and they're determining whether that's a priority for them,” Phillips said during a January interview.
It’s also too early for Textron to begin designing the additional ARV mission role variants, Phillips added, though the company has provided the Marine Corps with information on “payload concepts” for prospective future vehicle variants.
Meanwhile, General Dynamics, which recently announced it has completed initial testing of the C4UAS variant, is launching a “payload study” to digitally design the four additional variants, Skuta told Inside Defense during a separate interview.
“It's actually an engineering activity and study, where digitally, we are designing the other variants of the intended family of capabilities, the family of vehicles. So, we're looking at all six variants that the Marines are interested in and doing the digital design work for those,” said Skuta, who leads the company’s Marine Corps & Navy strategy and business development.
While neither company has been awarded a contract for ARV-30 or future variant work, the Marine Corps has directed both contractors to mature their initial C4UAS prototypes through continuing government-directed, risk-reduction testing.
“The Marine Corps has now awarded us an amendment to that [initial] contract to continue maturation of all of the systems, particularly the sensor systems on the C4UAS version as well as maturing and improving and enhancing reliability into the vehicle,” Phillips said of Textron’s FY-24 maturation efforts.
Textron is also upgrading its Systems Integration Lab -- first delivered with the initial C4UAS prototype -- to improve its battlefield management software integration and user interface to make the SIL more “vehicle-representative,” Phillips continued.
Prototype SILs produced by both companies consist of all of their prototype vehicles’ innards -- their operational controls, computing systems, communication devices, sensors and other internal hardware and software components -- all assembled, connected and integrated in a workshop environment rather than inside of a vehicle’s hull.
In addition to maturing its own C4UAS prototype, General Dynamics is developing a second-generation version of its SIL incorporating Marine Corps feedback and lessons learned from testing, Skuta said. This new “SIL 2.0” will be designed to resemble the interior of the vehicle, he added.
“The configuration of the SIL will closely resemble how the ARV is currently configured. For instance, for the C4UAS to have seven Marines inside: one driver, [one] vehicle commander, and [one] mission commander and then four mission specialists -- data/comms, marine intel officer and two UAS operators,” Skuta said.
Testing and lessons learned
As Textron and General Dynamics approach the next phase of the competition, both companies are drawing on lessons gleaned from Marine Corps testing. Executives from both contractors said they are pleased with the performance of their prototypes so far.
For General Dynamics, surf zone transit and swim capabilities are a point of emphasis, with the company’s prototype successfully navigating a variety of sea conditions during government-led testing conducted at the Amphibious Vehicle Test Branch located at Camp Pendleton, CA.
In a series of swim tests, the prototype navigated a protected marina area, traveled “dozens” of miles in the open ocean and performed repeated surf zone transit operations, Skuta said. Throughout this testing, the vehicle demonstrated good buoyancy and validated its “vectored thrust” steering and water safety system, he continued.
“The operator of the vehicle is able to independently steer the thrusters -- water jets -- which gives the ability to have that stability in the water and also to counteract what the Marines call the ‘littoral drift’ that you find oftentimes as you’re landing or countering a strong current in a river,” Skuta explained.
“With the vectored thrust, the driver can turn the thrust one way and still have independent control of his wheels another way so that you are able to keep that perpendicular angle as you head toward and exit out of a river crossing or something in an inland sense, or [in] the ocean,” he said.
For Textron, a significant achievement was the successful integration of the ARV prototype with a government-provided UAS system, company executives said. During this “vehicle electronics demonstration” completed in the fourth quarter of FY-23, the prototype was used to launch, operate and recover a fixed-wing UAS that shared data with Textron’s vehicle and SIL, Phillips said.
“We had our systems integration lab out there which acted as a surrogate for another vehicle within the mobile reconnaissance battalion that was able to provide sensor data to, and take sensor data,” Phillips said.
“What [the Marine Corps] was looking for was the ability of this ‘battlefield quarterback,’ this C4UAS vehicle, to acquire sensor information, manage the sensor information [and] disseminate that sensor information to the other vehicles within the battalion and beyond,” he continued.
In a separate in-house experiment, the contractor performed a similar reconnaissance exercise, using the C4UAS vehicle to launch Textron’s own Aerosonde unmanned system from the ARV prototype. Vehicle operators were able to collect and share data from a “beyond-line-of-sight location” and then recover the UAS all in about 20 minutes, Phillips said.
“That's just showing how agnostic we've built this system to be, how open the architecture is to be able to very quickly adapt and flex to whatever it is the Marine Corps wants to do in terms of adding capability onto this vehicle,” Phillips said.