31st MEU Marines conduct mechanized raid (pics by Lance Cpl. Kyle Bunyi)...the ACV should revitalize this operation...

An Assault Amphibious Vehicle with Battalion Landing Team, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, lands on the Coast of Townshend Island, Queensland Australia, July 1, 2019. The 31st MEU, the Marine Corps’ only continuously forward-deployed MEU, provides a flexible and lethal force ready to perform a wide range of military operations as the premier crisis response force in the Indo-Pacific region

The mechanized amphibious raid.

A hallmark of MEU operations that should be revitalized with the arrival of the ACV.

What do I mean?

Speed alone should make it more effective.  While water speed is essentially the same as the AAV, travel on land will be where the ACV shines.  It's mine protected, has equal (soon to be more) firepower than our current ride, is mechanically more reliable, more fuel efficient and quieter.

Add in a few enablers (depending on how tough the target is) and this could potentially become an enormously powerful tool.

Consider this.  Fly in artillery to the beach with CH-53Ks for fire support.  Use attached drones for target surveillance.  AH-1Zs can arrive just as the assault is starting to provide support.  MV-22s can land a blocking force from the Air Company to pick up stragglers or to act an the anvil to the mech force's hammer.

Flipping the script a bit and using work done for building an air centric Marine Corps could pay off in making this old chestnut more effective.

Of course the biggest thing the Corps could do to get the mechanized amphibious raid ready for a 21st century prime time is to work out instream launches of the vehicle from LCACs.

If our amphibs can hover 25 miles off shore and we're able to launch LCACs brimming with ACVs from there...and then conducting an instream launch of those vehicles from 3 miles off shore then you've got a multiplier that should be capable of surprising most enemies that we'd send this formation after.

Let's hope the ACV makes mechanized amphibious raids great again.