The first of 16 Amphibious Combat Vehicles (ACV) 1.1 prototypes has been rolled out by BAE Systems to the U.S. Marine Corps in a ceremony at the company’s York, Pennsylvania facility.
The ACV 1.1 offering is a fully amphibious, ship launch-able and recoverable 8x8 wheeled combat platform.
The ACV 1.1 leverages an existing platform provided by Iveco Defence Vehicles that is highly effective at sea and provides superior land mobility and state-of-the-art systems survivability.
“Iveco Defence Vehicles has a long-standing legacy of building multi-purpose, protected and armoured platforms, including solutions for amphibious operations,” said Vincenzo Giannelli, President and CEO of Iveco Defence Vehicles. “That expertise coupled with the hard work of our dedicated ACV team with BAE Systems has allowed us to deliver the first of these vehicles ahead of schedule.”
The BAE Systems solution balances the Marine Corps’ demands for an affordable, production-ready platform with added designs for increased force protection, water and land mobility, transportability and survivability.
The Amphibious Combat Vehicle ACV 1.1 is equipped with a FPT Industrial Cursor 16 engine – 700 horsepower, providing a significant power increase over the Assault Amphibious Vehicle (AAV) currently operated by the Marine Corps. The vehicle excels in all-terrain mobility, has a suspended interior seat structure for 13 embarked Marines, blast mitigating positions for a crew of three, and improved survivability and force protection over currently fielded systems.
The U.S. Marine Corps awarded BAE Systems a contract for the Engineering, Manufacture, and Development (EMD) phase of the ACV 1.1 program in November 2015, one of two EMD contracts issued.
During this phase, BAE Systems, supported by Iveco Defence Vehicles experts, will produce 16 prototypes that will be tested by the Marine Corps.
BAE Systems has more than 70 years of experience designing and building amphibious vehicles and is a leading provider of combat vehicles, having produced more than 100,000 systems for customers worldwide.
Iveco Defence Vehicles brings additional proven experience, having designed and built more than 30,000 multi-purpose, protected, and armoured military vehicles in service today.
Iveco Defence Vehicles is a brand of CNH Industrial N.V., a World leader in Capital Goods. Iveco Defence Vehicles is dedicated to delivering innovative automotive and protection solutions to meet the needs of military customers worldwide. The company manufactures specialist logistic, protected and armoured vehicles in its facility in Bolzano in Northern Italy, as well as marketing Iveco’s full commercial range, adapted as necessary to meet the demands of the military user. In consequence, Iveco Defence Vehicles has a full range of vehicles to meet a broad spectrum of defence applications.
