USMC confusion with regards to the AAV replacement.

via Seapower Magazine.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Marine Corps is assessing a variety of alternatives in moving Marines and their equipment and supplies ashore from ships, a capability needed in the full spectrum of warfare.
“We’re in a state of flux right now,” said BGen William F. Mullen III, director, Capabilities Development Directorate, Combat Development and Integration, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, in a July 15 discussion with Dr. Maren Leed, who holds the Harold Brown Chair in Defense Policy Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
Mullen said the Marine Corps needs capabilities for “disaster relief all the way to the high end [opposed amphibious landing], which we believe we won’t do but have to have the capability to do. If we don’t have the capability to do that, it limits your options.”
The only current connector with the capability to make opposed landing is the AAV7 Amphibious Assault Vehicle, first fielded in 1972. The utility landing craft (LCU), landing craft air cushion (LCAC) and its replacement, the LCAC 100-class ship-to-shore connector (SSC), and the Joint High-Speed Vessel (JHSV) are not designed to make opposed landings.
Mullen said some of the LCUs in service are 54 years old, and the Navy has just begun to develop a next-generation LCU.
The Marine Corps is developing the Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV) as a replacement for the AAV7. The service plans to procure a limited quantity at first “and then see what works,” Mullen said, noting that the service would incorporate needed improvements for subsequent production.
The ACV would be “designed more to operate as an MRAP [Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected vehicle]than a tracked vehicle,” Mullen said.
The Corps also is looking at a craft called the Ultra-Heavy Amphibious Connector, a vessel that can carry two-thirds of the load of an LCU at the speed of an LCAC. Also under consideration is the late-1980s concept HAVIC-15, the High-Speed Assault Vessel and Interdiction Craft, a sled designed to carry an armored vehicle ashore, after which the vehicle leaves the sled on the beach as it proceeds inland.
Mullen said the Corps is looking at an in-stream launch capability of the SSC from the well deck of an amphibious warfare ship. Such a capability would not be able to be incorporated in the SSC until the 10th production example, because of the advanced stage of its development.
Another concept being considered is fitting a ramp on the JHSVs to allow them to launch ACVs into the water.
Mullen stressed that the Marine Corps still needed all of the gray-hull amphibious warfare ships, with 38 required, 33 acceptable, but only 29 available.

This is totally unsat.

"And then see what works"?????  ARE YOU SHITTING ME!!!!

In times of severe budget pressure they're talking about procuring a vehicle and seeing what works?

Marine Corps procurement is broken.

Leadership is dazed and confused and have no idea what they want or what the Marine Corps needs.

I have been told that the MPC, what HQMC has relabeled the ACV 1.1, is going to be delayed and the decision will be tossed to the incoming Commandant.  That is the only solution.  Right now we have the gang that can't shoot straight running things.

Sidenote:  Anyone have any info on the HAVIC-15?  I can't find a bit of info on it.

Sidenote 1:  The USMC really needs to drop this "connector" talk.  The ACV/EFV/MPC are combat vehicles.  NOT CONNECTORS!