ACV instream launches from LCACs?...Mullen was right.

via IHS Janes.

The US Marine Corps (USMC) hopes to launch its Amphibious Combat Vehicles (ACVs) from the SSCs before the hovercraft reach shore - because the ACVs are not expected to be capable of traversing the distances that a USN 'seabase' would keep from a shoreline.
"From a technical standpoint [adding the ramp] is not a super hard thing to do," Tom Walmsley, vice-president and general manager for Textron, told reporters on 13 January at the Surface Navy Association's annual symposium.

I talked to General Mullen about a year ago and thought he was blowing smoke about in stream launches of ACV's from the "new" LCAC.

I was wrong.  They're actually investigating it and it seems that its not a difficult engineering challenge.

What's really interesting is that with this announcement we're getting a peek behind the curtain.  At a glance I would assume that the ACV 1.1 will indeed meet the requirements laid out in increment 1.2, being able to transit from ship to shore and not just inland lakes and rivers as originally planned.

This is good news.  Instead of waiting till increment 1.2, the USMC can choose a direction with its armored house now.  Either maintain tanks (something I've evolved into believing is necessary) and upgrade them to US Army standard or develop a family of vehicles based on the ACV to include a direct fire variant.

Oh and I'm still betting on the BAE entrant winning in the end.