US new amphibious vehicle

[Hindustani78]

Marines defend new wheeled amphibious vehicle design - Business Insider
Mar. 12, 2015, 11:51 AM

An Amphibious Assault Vehicle (AAV) attached to the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) launches from a ship's well deck during a mock amphibious landing. The landing was part of Exercise Foal Eagle between the US and South Korea, on March 23, 2002.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill today voiced concerns about the US Marine Corps' new amphibious vehicle, questioning the service's selection of wheels over the venerable tracked design.

Marine Corps leaders testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee on Seapower to discuss modernization efforts in the proposed Fiscal 2016 budget request.

The Corps has identified its new Amphibious Combat Vehicle as its top modernization priority.

The effort is set to replace most of Marine Amphibious Assault Vehicles that are well over 40 years old.

"Those vehicles are old, and they need to be replaced," Marine Lt. Gen. Kenneth J. Glueck, Jr., deputy commandant for Combat Development and Integration and commanding general of Marine Corps Combat Development Command.

"We will do what we can to bring some of those vehicles up to an acceptable standard, but to be the Marine Corps that you want for the future it is time to do some modernization."

Currently, the Corps has 1,062 AAVs. Of those, 392 AAVs will receive a survivability upgrade that will enable the service to maintain a forcible-entry capability for all seven of Marine expeditionary units, as well as two Marine expeditionary brigades, Glueck said.

The Corps has an overall requirement is to have armored lift for 10 battalions of infantry. The 392 upgraded AAVs will be able to carry four infantry battalions and the newer Amphibious Combat Vehicles will carry the additional six infantry battalions, Glueck said.

The proposed modernization plan does not account for the mandatory budget under sequestration that are scheduled to occur in 2016 if Congress and the White House doesn't find a way to repeal the crippling defense spending cuts enacted by the 2011 Budget Control Act.

Senators were more concerned, however, with the service's decision to choose wheeled technology over the more time-tested tracked design.

Marine leaders said the service has identified ground mobility as a high priority for the new AAV.

Wheeled-vehicle capability has advanced significantly over the past decade with technologies such as independent suspension, armor and variable inflatable tires, according to Thomas P. Dee, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for Expeditionary Programs and Logistics Management.

Tests involving an eight-wheeled demonstrator vehicle at the Nevada Automotive Test Center have been very encouraging, Dee said.

"Performance was very good and for a medium-weight vehicle; it was equivalent to what we would get out of a tracked vehicle," Dee said. "It may not be as maneuverable or as mobile in off-road conditions in certain cases as an M1 tank, but is it certainly as maneuverable as we are going to get in that class of vehicle."

Wikimedia CommonsMarines exit towards their objective point during a mechanized assault as part of a live fire range in Djibouti, Africa, March 29, 2010.

Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, said she was worried that first version of the wheeled ACV will be less capable since it is designed to carry 10 infantrymen instead of 14 like the current AAV.

"From all the analysis we have done, we are not giving away any capability whatsoever from going from tracked to wheeled technology," Glueck said. "Actually we are gaining capability. We are gaining survivability."

The ACVs are slated to be equipped with Double-V hulls, technology that has been perfected in the Army's Stryker wheeled vehicles to provide protection against improvised explosive devices.

"These vehicles have the capability — because of the independent drives that they have on them — if you hit an IED and actually blow off two wheels on one side of the vehicle, you can continue to drive and drive out of the threat area," Glueck said. "So I think our Marines are going to be very well served with the Amphibious Combat Vehicle."

Marine Corps leaders decided that the first version of the AVC program — known as AVC 1.1 — will focus on "how fast can we get a good vehicle out there that is going to be good enough that is non developmental and be able to meet our basic requirements," Glueck said.

The initial purchase of 204 vehicles will be focused on being personnel transport that will be designed to carry roughly 10 infantrymen, he said.

"But industry is focusing on the objective requirement for 1.2 because they want the full contract," Glueck said, describing how industry has been designing 1.1 vehicles with 12 to 13 seats for infantrymen.

"So we are actually going to be getting a more capable vehicle from the beginning. The ACV 1.2 will address some of those improvements we wanted to have but also focus on mission-specific capabilities such as command and control, logistics … and perhaps even firepower."

 

[Hindustani78]

By Joe Gould 3:40 p.m. EDT March 31, 2015
US Army Leaders Make Case for AMPV Decision

BAE Systems received an engineering, manufacturing and development contract for the US Army's Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle program.(Photo: BAE Systems)

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — US Army officials shot down the possibility for a wheeled ambulance variant of the armored multipurpose vehicle (AMPV), just the latest chapter in a drama over the vehicle between industry, the Army and Capitol Hill.

In December, the US Army awarded a contract worth $1.2 billion to BAE Systems to begin building the AMPV. BAE was the only contractor still in the running after General Dynamics Land Systems pulled out of the competition in May, complaining that the Army's requirements unfairly favored the tracked Bradley fighting vehicle derivative that BAE was submitting.

BAE is signed to deliver 29 vehicles in five variants in a 52-month engineering, manufacturing and development phase that will lead to a contract to replace all 2,897 M113 vehicles in the Army's armored brigade combat teams (ABCTs). However, GD lobbied the Hill get its eight-wheeled Stryker vehicle in the running for an ambulance variant and another 1,922 M113s in use supporting echelons above brigade (EAB) the service eventually wants to replace.

In a brief at an Association of the US Army convention here, acquisitions officials strove to put the matter to rest, outlining why the BAE's tracked vehicle provided the best mobility, as compared with the Stryker on a variety of terrain, particularly for an ABCT, and defending the program's fairness.

"The AMPV was about meeting the requirements, there was never a specification for a wheeled or tracked vehicle," said Col. Michael Milner, the AMPV project manager. "We provided industry a list of requirements, industry was able to provide feedback and eventually was issued an RFP [request for proposals] on those requirements. The proposal selected did happen to be a tracked vehicle."

Brig. Gen. David Bassett, the Army's program executive officer for Ground Combat Systems, said Stryker ambulances were "wonderful in their intended formations," but an ABCT's ambulances need to be able to go wherever the brigade's other vehicles go to retrieve wounded soldiers.

"We want to make sure we can get an ambulance to that point of need," Bassett said. "The arguments about the mobility being roughly equivalent are using analytical methods that don't represent the true traffic-ability of a wheeled versus a tracked solution."

The medical evacuation variant transports medics to troops on the front line, and evacuate them to a treatment variant, which is used to carry equipment for a battalion aid station.

Bassett said officials wanted to provide the best vehicle under a particular price, and "need to leverage" common components with the Bradley.

The aging M113 was terminated in 2007 because of it lacked required armor and was unable to accommodate modern electronics. The AMPV, with 78 percent more space and two, 400-amp generators, would include mortar carrier, mission command, general purpose, medical evacuation and medical treatment variants, all on a similar chassis.

Milner touted a common drive train, power plant, electronics and underbody across the five variants, all mature systems that would speed production and fielding. The drive train and suspension are common to the Bradley and the Paladin Integrated Management, a self-propelled howitzer.

The plan is to go to a preliminary design review this summer and a critical design review next summer, with first delivery in late 2016. From there, intermittent tests will lead to the limited user tests in late 2018. The fielding is not going to be complete until the mid-2020s.

The matter of wheeled versus tracked vehicles is not entirely settled, as other studies are ongoing.

The Army released one study to the House Armed Services Committee last month, and it found that the other units in the brigade had similar requirements to the AMPV, "but that's not to say those will be the requirements."

The Pentagon's Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation office is expected to complete its study soon that concentrates on medical variants, Milner said.

The Army is also conducting a formal analysis of alternatives for echelons above brigade at the behest of the Senate Appropriations Committee tat is expected to wrap in 2016.

 

[Hindustani78]

Marine Corps releases ACV 1.1 solicitation
By James K. Sanborn, Staff writer 4:16 p.m. EDT April 2, 2015

The Marine Corps on Monday published an updated solicitation for its future amphibious vehicle, which is designed to replace the aging fleet of Amphibious Assault Vehicles in service since the 1970s.

The solicitation for the Amphibious Combat Vehicle 1.1 outlines the service's requirements for what should be just the first in a line of future amphibious vehicles that will carry Marines ashore and transport them inland.

ACV 1.1 has met criticism because it will likely be a displacement hull vehicle, meaning it bobs through the water at a low-rate of speed. Some say that makes it ineffective in an age when Navy ships deploying Marines ashore must remain up to 100 miles off shore to guard against shore-based missiles.

But the Marine Corps has ferociously defended the ACV whose published request for proposal calls for a wheeled vehicle leaders argue is well suited to move quickly across land where the majority of missions will take place.

Envisioned as an eight-wheeled vehicle costing up to $7.5 million each, it would seat at least 10 Marines and their combat loads and handle 2-foot waves.

Earlier attempts to replace the AAV failed after immense cost and schedule overruns. Those efforts included the defunct Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, in development since the 1980s, which could plane across water at a high rate of speed, but ultimately fell victim to budget cuts and program delays.

Under the updated RFP, the Marine Corps will likely award multiple contracts. Top competitors include SAIC, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics Land Systems and BAE Systems. The immediate plan calls for outfitting six battalions with 200 ACVs by 2023, and modernizing enough AAVs to outfit another four battalions. That would give the service the ability to put 10 battalions ashore during a forcible entry operation.

Later versions of the ACV will offer more robust capabilities including more internal capacity and possibly even high water speed as the service once sought in the EFV.

 

[gomerker23]

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