BAE Systems Hits Grand Slam with Four Marine Corps Contract Wins

The U.S. Marine Corps has awarded BAE Systems four different contracts to design, build and test various amphibious vehicles, solidifying the company’s position as a leader in marine vehicle engineering.

Over the next year and a half, the company will complete a trade study around the current Assault Amphibious Vehicle (AAV); build and test a prototype of its Marine Personnel Carrier (MPC); and work on two different contracts related to the design of the Corps’ proposed Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV).

“Our team has worked very hard on each RFP, and we’re beyond thrilled that all of our proposals resulted in awards to BAE Systems,” said Ann Hoholick, vice president and deputy general manager for Vehicle Systems. “These awards are truly a grand slam for our team. We’re proud to have supported the U.S. Marines for over 70 years, and these programs will continue to build upon this relationship.”

The first contract is an AAV upgrade trade study, which will help the Corps’ AAV Program Office determine an optimal design for the AAV RAM/RS vehicle upgrade. This ship-to-shore vehicle has been in service since 1972, but BAE Systems continues to upgrade the vehicle and extend its life. This work will also support a validation that the capability upgrades can be produced at the targeted average procurement unit cost.


The MPC demonstration and study effort allows BAE Systems, partnered with teammate IVECO, to showcase its optimized 8x8 wheeled vehicle to the U.S. Marine Corps and demonstrate its superior balance of sea-keeping capability and force protection. The vehicle provides a new hallmark to expeditionary combat vehicle relevance.

The final two contracts, focused on design work for the ACV, will provide a leap forward in amphibious vehicle survivability by delivering the U.S. Marine Corps a blast test demonstrator based on the ACV requirements. Included trade studies will confirm the vehicle’s land and water mobility can still be achieved at higher survivability levels. One contract is related to a new, ACV-specific design concept; the second is for a design that is based off of the existing AAV. The purpose for both awards is to allow the U.S. Marine Corps the opportunity to evaluate design concepts based on a new design or an upgrade to current vehicles.

Taken as a whole, BAE Systems’ overall goal under these four contracts is to help the U.S. Marine Corps design a “Family of Systems” that incorporates low risk, mature technologies that are scalable to pace the threat and align to emerging requirements and funding. Leveraging shared designs and systems within the vehicles will decrease infrastructure, training, maintenance and support costs.