By now you've all heard that BAE and SAIC won a contract to perform survivability upgrades to the AAV. Quite honestly I can't cheer. This is looong overdue. More to the point though. I think the Marine Corps needs the Marine Personnel Carrier (I refuse to call it the dorky name of Amphibious Combat Vehicle Increment 1.1. You can't rebrand a failed program and make it successful)
Budget realities and choices by leadership has consequences.
We desperately need it but the Marine Corps has sold its soul to the F-35 and MV-22. They're expensive beyond reason. Difficult AND expensive to maintain....and will be a drain on budgets for years. So while I believe we need the MPC, I don't think we'll get it.
That means a massive upgrade to the AAV.
Expect the major players to be scrambling for a piece of that contract. Lockheed Martin Ground, BAE, SAIC, General Dynamics...I even expect Rheinmetall, Patria and a few others to join a home team to offer their bits and widgets to the design.
The AAV. The longest serving armored vehicle in the history of the United States military. At least it will be by the time its retired.
do you have the contract on what they are suppose to provide and the timeline? obviously im intrested
ReplyDeleteyeah a friend of the website sent me the document...i'll post it.
ReplyDeleteto me it seems pointless really, why this old thimg anymore. it date back 1967. buying new vehicles seems much cheaper in the long run and will land us a stronger usmc. we dont have a large combat deployment going on right now swo its not going to save lives. i say take all the money these tards are going to spend talking about and fucking around, r+d'ing and just put it into a fund to buy the new vehicles as they can be afforded.
ReplyDeleteThere is a huge misconception the the miiltary propagates with itself and congress and it practically takes a comptroller of an accountant to see the truth.
The current lie is that new vehicles are expensive. The the total price of a stryker apc is about 5 million dollars which can really add up quick. but 75% of that price is a bunch of electronic goodies the military thinks are important. The actual price of the armored vehicle without all the stuff the army puts on it is only about 1.8 million dollars. thats a very big difference. so rather that screw around remodeling antiques they need to just get some vehicles and then upgrade them later.
not going to be to much R&D for this, BAE already has a pkg put together and has tested it themselves, just ahs to go thro AVTB then it should be fast tracked, that being said i do agree these upgrades should of been years ago and that we should be getting a new vehicle instead.
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