BAE Systems was awarded an almost $84 million contract to produce 36 Assault Amphibious Vehicles for Taiwan, a U.S. Department of Defense release said.
The $83,629,301 firm-fixed-price contract which was was not competitively procured is to “provide the necessary material and technical engineering to build, integrate, test, and deliver” 30 Assault Amphibious Vehicle, Personnel (AAVP7A1), four command vehicles (AAVC7A1) and two recovery vehicles (AAVR7A1), the Friday, June 22 release said.
The contract under the Taipei Economic Cultural Representative Office Foreign Military Sales program includes training, engineering services, logistics, and other support and is expected to be completed by July 22, 2020.
The Assault Amphibious Vehicle was first introduced in 1972, when it was known as the Landing Vehicle, Tracked. It was upgraded in 1982 and renamed in 1984.
The tracked vehicle’s Personnel carrier variant has a crew of at least three and can carry 21 combat troops or up to 10,000 lbs (4,536 kg) of equipment. The AAV has a top speed of 7 knots in the water and up to 45 mph (72 km/h) on land. It has a range of more than 200 miles (320 km) on land and can swim for more than seven hours.
The vehicle carries a .50 cal heavy machine gun and 40mm automatic grenade launcher.
The Command variant does not have a turret, and much of its internal space is contains communications equipment. it carries five radio operators, three staff and two commanders. The Recovery variant, also turretless, carries a crane.
The Assault Amphibious Vehicle is currently the United States Marine Corps’ amphibious troop transport, but earlier this month BAE won a low-rate initial production contract to build 30 of the Corps’ new Amphibious Combat Vehicle after a competition with SAIC. The new 8-wheeled vehicle was developed by Italy’s Iveco.
Intended for incremental upgrades, the ACV 1.1 program will see up to 204 vehicles procured with fielding to begin in 2020. Work on the requirements for ACV 1.2 is already underway.