More on the ADVS bid for the Amphibious Combat Vehicle project...

Thanks again to Max for the info!

via Defense Daily...

The deadline for bids in the amphibious combat vehicle program was Monday. Industry heavy hitters Lockheed Martin [LMT], BAE Systems, General Dynamics [GD] and Science Applications International Corp. [SAIC] each submitted bids. The outlier is relative newcomer Advanced Defense Vehicle Systems, or ADVS, based in Lake Orion, Mich.
With fewer than 1,000 employees, ADVS would seem out of its league in the ACV competition. However, the company told Defense Daily on May 20 that it will act as prime but has broughtTextron [TXT] and IR Technologies on board as subcontractors, which should add some industry gravitas to its bid.

The Marine Corps is in the market for a wheeled personnel carrier that can match land speed, maneuverability and survivability with the M1 Abrams tank. It must be able to carry at least 10 Marines fully loaded from the well deck of a ship offshore onto an unprotected beach and into combat in sea states with waves up to two feet tall.

I had talked about ADVS being a shot out of the blue but it seems that Defense Daily was all over this and I missed it.

So they've brought aboard Textron as a sub?

Interesting.  To be honest when this whole sausage making affair started I expected Textron to be one of the companies in the game....ADVS is spunky but I just don't think they'll make the cut.

My favorites (at least from my view of things) continue to be BAE/IVECO with the SuperAV....General Dynamics and SAIC/ST Kinetics fighting for the second position.  Lockheed Martin (maybe due to my prejudice against them) shouldn't even be allowed to compete considering their actions with Patria (why that isn't a bigger story is beyond me....corporate espionage that crosses continents...the SecDef himself and certainly the Commandant should be commenting on this).

It going to come back to swimming.  The SuperAV is the best swimmer, has been tested by the Italian Navy swimming from and to the well decks of its amphibs, they have documented its performance in comparison to their own AAVs and it was designed from the start for this role.

The Terrex 2 is an impressive vehicle in its own right but the swim portion will be its weakness.  As far as the General Dynamics entry....I see a modified Piranha 5 being used.

Yeah.  SuperAV definitely for the downselect and anyone's guess as to who joins them.

The infuriating thing is that the Marine Corps is going to go cost crazy on these manufacturers while they've been spending like a middle aged business man at a whore house on the F-35.

Any of these corporations can deliver the vehicle, the question will be whether the Marine Corps plays fair with them.