Amphibious Combat Vehicle Command & Control variants, as well as the ACV Medium Caliber Cannons are on the way!

via UPI

BAE Systems was awarded a $67 million contract to develop three amphibious combat vehicle command and control variants, as well as the ACV medium caliber cannons, for the U.S. Marine Corps.

The contract for Systems Land and Armaments includes development of engineering drawings, manufacture and test support for the command and control mission role variants, and the development of engineering drawings for the cannon mission role variants, the Defense Department announced Thursday.

Story here. 

Curious.  The quick movement toward the Command & Control variant is completely understandable.  What has me a bit confused is how the Gun variant is being moved ahead of the Recovery model.

I would have thought that would be an automatic but apparently it isn't.  Perhaps the Gun variant is higher risk so they're moving it ahead?  How about the thinking that an increase in firepower is needed now and they can't wait to see how the Army moves ahead with the 50mm cannon?

Not sure but this vehicle is truly a thing now. 

How long it remains as the primary assault vehicle is in question.  I'm mainly looking at the work the Japanese are doing...plus we have a history of "interim" vehicles before settling in on a long term steed (thinking about the relatively short history of the LVTP-5 and how it was quickly replaced with the LVTP-7).  Regardless this is good news.  After much stagnation and a bit of confusion, the USMC is moving again.