The US Department of Defense this week awarded BAE Systems a continuation contract worth more than 153 million dollars to supply 30 additional amphibious vehicles (ACV) to the US Marine Corps. The total value of the contract given to BAE Systems to supply amphibious vehicles to the US Army is slightly more from 2 billion dollars.
The ACV 1.1 vehicle is an advanced 8×8 vehicle capable of moving in the open sea and is based on a platform developed by the Italian company Ivoco. The vehicle is equipped with a new 6-cylinder engine with 700 horse power, which is more powerful than the current amphibious vehicle model AAV. The ACV vehicle can accommodate 13 Marines, explosion-proof chairs for 3 crew members and a higher survivability and protection capacity than the vehicles currently used by the Marines.
BAE Systems has developed 4 different models for the ACV: ACV-30 equipped with a turret with a 30mm automatic cannon, an APC, ACV-P, an ACV-C command and a rescue ACV-R.