Marine Corps planning transition to Armored Reconnaissance Vehicle

The Marine Corps has initiated plans to replace its Light Armored Vehicle (LAV) with the more mobile, networked, transportable and lethal Armored Reconnaissance Vehicle (ARV) late in the next decade.

“The ARV will be an advanced combat vehicle system, capable of fighting for information that balances competing capability demands to sense, shoot, move, communicate and remain transportable as part of the naval expeditionary force,” John “Steve” Myers, program manager for Marine Corps System Command’s (MCSC) LAV portfolio, said.

While the LAV has supported Marine Air-Ground Task Force missions on the battlefield since the 1980s and remains operationally effective, the life cycle of the system is set to expire in the mid-2030s, and the Corps seeks to replace the vehicle before then.

“The Marine Corps is examining different threats,” Kimberly Bowen, deputy program manager of Light Armored Vehicles, said. “The ARV helps the Corps maintain an overmatched peer-to-peer capability.”

The conditions to begin replacing the legacy LAV with the ARV in the late-2020s have been set via preliminary planning, successful resourcing in the program objectives memorandum and the creation of an Office of Naval Research science and technology program.

“This vehicle will equip the Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion within the Marine Divisions to perform combined arms, all-weather, sustained reconnaissance and security missions in support of the ground combat element,” Myers said. “It’s expected to be a transformational capability for the Marine Corps.”