How did we all miss this about the Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV) planned increments?

Thanks to Jonathan for the link!

via Defense Aerospace from Congressional Research Office (page 7)

Major Change to Marine Corps Modernization Strategy26

In what was described as a “drastic shift,” the Marines decided in March 2014 to “resurrect” the MPC and designate it as ACV Increment 1.1 and initially acquire about 200 vehicles. The Marines also plan to develop ACV Increment 1.2, a tracked version, and to acquire about 470 vehicles and fund an ongoing high water speed study. Although ACV Increment 1.1 will have a swim capability, a connector will be required to get the vehicles from ship to shore. Plans call for ACV Increment 1.1 to enter the acquisition cycle at Milestone B (Engineering and Manufacturing Development) in FY2016, award prototype contracts leading to a down select to one vendor in FY2018, and enter low-rate initial production. Marine budget documents do not address ACV Increment 1.2 program timelines, thereby effectively delaying the development of a fully amphibious assault vehicle

Wait what?

Increment 1.2 is going to be a tracked vehicle?  Now I understand the talk about 1.1 and 1.2 merging.  The real question is simple.  Are we really seeing industry perform at so high a level that 1.1 will actually fulfill requirements or are we seeing a cost saving move?

I'm a fan of the ACV 1.1, and can see a move to develop a whole family of vehicles based on it.  But once again I'm forced to question what's really going on here.

Let me repeat.  Current plans call for the vehicles to be TESTED for 3 years starting in 2017.  Full rate production won't hit till AFTER 2020!  Even if you buy off the shelf (remember the goal of the original Marine Personnel Carrier program that got merged into the ACV?) the tech goes stale after a period of time.

But this portion of the document stings...

Marine budget documents do not address ACV Increment 1.2 program timelines, thereby effectively delaying the development of a fully amphibious assault vehicle

Did we all get played by the Marine Corps?  Are we really looking at a Marine Personnel Carrier 2.0 instead of a real replacement for the AAV?