The U.S. Marine Corps has given BAE Systems the green light to commence full-rate production of amphibious combat vehicles and issued a $184M contract modification to procure an initial 36 FRP ACVs for the service branch’s ship-to-shore operations.
USMC will use fiscal 2021 procurement funds on the award and expects the company’s land and armaments business to complete work in November 2022, the Department of Defense said Thursday.
The FRP milestone and contract award came nearly two and a half years after the military branch selected the BAE-Iveco Defence Vehicles team for a potential $1.2B contract to build as many as 204 vehicles.
In a separate announcement, BAE said it estimates that the number of lot 1 ACVs will increase to 72 early next year and the company has options to manufacture 80 more units annually over a five-year period.
The ACV is designed to transport Marines from naval ships to shore and achieved initial operational capability status in November.
BAE will also develop command-and-control mission role and medium-caliber cannon variants of the vehicle under a $67M modification the service branch awarded in June last year.
