US Marine Corps awards contracts for 30 mm recce vehicle prototype

General Dynamics submitted one Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle prototype to the US Marine Corps for testing in 2023. (General Dynamics Land Systems )

The two competitors for the first variant of the US Marine Corps (USMC) Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle (ARV) have been selected to prototype the second variant as well, the marines announced on 7 March.

Textron Systems and General Dynamics Land Systems received contracts to build one prototype each of an ARV with a 30 mm medium-calibre autocannon (ARV-30), according to a Program Executive Office Land Systems (PEO LS) press release. The technology development milestone comes as the ARV programme is expected to make an engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) decision about the first variant – command, control, communications, and computers/unmanned aircraft systems (C4/UAS).

The contract was awarded on 1 March, following the postponement of an industry day for the vehicle in February. About USD23 million in total was awarded for the prototypes, with USD10.9 million for General Dynamics and USD11.8 for Textron, which is developing its solution based on its 6×6 Cottonmouth vehicle.