Marine Corps looks to add armor to entire fleet of Amphibious Assault Vehicles

Above: Marines in an up-armored Amphibious Assault Vehicle on patrol through Fallujah last year.

The Marine Corps is considering adding armor upgrades across the entire fleet of Assault Amphibious Vehicles, service officials said Tuesday. Plans for greater armor protection and survivability on the AAV are being evaluated, in part, due to delays with the Corps’ next-generation Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle.

“We have been putting together possible upgrade packets,” said Brian Prosser, Program Manager, Assault Amphibious Vehicle Systems, Marine Corps Systems Command.

Now in its system development and demonstration phase, the EFV fielding date was delayed by five years in March to 2015, according to a stakeholder report obtained by the Marine Corps Times. The report also detailed cost increases for the EFV, indicating the acquisition unit costs per vehicle had risen from $12.3 million estimated last August, to $22.3 million each.

Read the rest at Marine Corps Times

Related Link:
Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle delivery delayed to 2015; costs double