Posted on 01/29/2024 7:39:26 PM PST by FarCenter
The US Marine Corps (USMC) is set to deploy its advanced Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV) to the Pacific despite questions about its readiness, maintenance and operation amid recent restrictions on surf-based use of the platform.
The ACV deployment, expected in or around March, aims to fill a looming amphibious warfare ship shortage amid rising tensions with China over Taiwan.
Defense News reported the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit will deploy with the ACVs aboard the US Navy’s Boxer Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) in phases, with the amphibious transport dock Somerset heading to the Pacific in the coming days for a six-month scheduled deployment.
The Defense News report says that the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer and the dock landing ship USS Harpers Ferry will deploy about two months later due to ship readiness and maintenance challenges.
The ACV is slated to replace the USMC’s aging Amphibious Assault Vehicles (AAV), which have been in service since the 1970s. Defense News mentions that the eight-wheeled ACV can emerge from a ship, transit waves and then roll onto shore, allowing the military’s amphibious force to conduct amphibious operations.
However, ACV operations have been restricted for nearly 18 months after one rolled over in the water during training exercises in October 2022, prompting the USMC to halt nearly all surf-based operations, Defense News reports.
The ACV has also faced challenges on land, including December 2023 rollover that killed a Marine aboard at a California USMC base.
The USMC has attributed the mishaps to training shortfalls and said it is on the process of recertifying vehicle operators and maintainers. But even the operators who have been recertified are not yet authorized to transit the surf zone with embarked troops or when the average height of the tallest waves is four feet or higher, Defense News reports.
(Excerpt) Read more at asiatimes.com ...
I feel bad for all the straight people serving in the armed forces.
A landing craft that cannot go through the surf and takes wheels over tracks. And in the Pacific where you never find sand. Sounds like another great idea from the modern genius USMC generals angling for a Board of Directors position somewhere.
Fits well with a USMC that is getting rid of all it’s tanks, nearly all of it’s artillery, snipers, huge chunks of heavy lift and attack helos and tactical air.
They must go to that War College or something between their stints at Kennedy School of government and networking with BAE and Lockheed execs.
Let me guess. They’ll be stored in large yards where they
can be destroyed in mass on a Chinese whim.
Each Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV)has a sticker which says: “This End (Hopefully) Up”
This thing sounds like it would be a nightmare in combat.
Who is gonna get us off this beach, soldier?
Not me sir - I haven't taken the 18 month training course! Not me sir, I haven't been re-certified! I could, but those waves are above 4 feet! I can't do that!
They want more money.
What did they do with theo ey we already gave them?
Fill it with fags and see if it floats
ALL of gooberment is out of control. Every bit of it needs to be fired.
LATE to the Red Chinese threat to Taiwan?
Please terminate all “journalists” who use the word “wonkey”.
Please terminate all “journalists” who use the word “wonky”.
The remedial counseling can and should lead to a discharge - but in a real military it would be negligence and punishment with prison time if people died from from individual’s incompetence.
Again, recruiting sub-IQ people to defend a Nation after your more Intelligent military High Tech force is pushed out due to racism.
When American cities burn, people will say they deserved it.
I am not saying that the ACV is the solution, just the technology of the AAV is old and the AAVs in service are ancient. While the AAVs were always breaking down (We were exceptional at towing broken AAVs.); a good crew could get them back up very quickly. From my very limited conversations with Marines today, the AAV is past its expiration date- things that never broke before are breaking now with regularity.
Nothing against the Marine Corps but sometimes their equipment demands are ... unreasonable. Like why are they spending more for their modernized/updated/evolved Cobra attack helicopters (the AH-1Z Viper) than the Army pays for its latest block of AH-64 Longbow Apaches?
Similarly, one of the reasons the F-35B has been such a giraffe is that the Corps insisted on a replacement for the Harrier that was supersonic, stealthy, and STOVL (short take-off and vertical landing) capable. It would have been much less the problem child if there’d been an adult in the room to tell them, “Pick any two — supersonic, stealthy, or STOVL — but you can’t have all three.”
...which is, in effect, dragging a 1960s airframe into the 21st Century.
Early last year, the Marine Corps fired the commander in charge of the Assault Amphibian School, who was responsible for training Marines in ACV operations and maintenance.
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