The U.S. Marine Corps is monitoring the first deployment of its amphibious combat vehicle to gather new lessons on maintaining and operating the vehicle. The ACV had its operational debut at the Philippines-based Balikatan exercise with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit. This deployment tests the ACV’s operations and maintenance from a ship, offering valuable insights for future operations.
Lessons learned from this deployment will inform modifications to tactics, techniques, and procedures for the vehicle, as well as potentially influencing changes to the vehicle’s design itself. The Marine Corps has set up a Readiness Control Board to study maintenance, training, and parts issues that could affect the vehicle’s readiness and availability.
BAE Systems is responsible for designing and building four variants of the vehicle, with some currently in production or testing phases. Based on the ongoing deployment, the program office may make engineering changes to specific variants or the entire production line. With approximately 80% parts commonality among variants, adjustments could be targeted or affect the entire vehicle class.
