Ramona Adams
Science Applications International Corp. has received approval from the U.S. Marine Corp‘s program executive officer for land systems to kick off the production and deployment phase of its Assault Amphibious Vehicle Survivability Upgrade program.
SAIC said Tuesday the Marine Corps authorized the program’s transition into low-rate initial production following issuance of a Milestone C decision and awarded the company an initial option under the potential $145 million AAV SU LRIP contract.
The company will upgrade an additional 22 personnel-variant AAVs and three command and control-variant vehicles over two years.
USMC plans to test, evaluate and initially field the 25 vehicles to the service branch’s expeditionary units.
Under the AAV SU program, SAIC will disassemble the Marine Corps’ legacy AAVs then manufacture and install upgrades designed to protect Marines from underbody explosions, improvised explosive devices and direct fire.
The company developed and delivered 10 AAV SU prototypes to the service branch under the engineering and manufacturing development phase of the program.
