Advanced Marine reconnaissance vehicles are on the way - here's what they look like

Today on Gear Scout, we're here at the Modern Day Marine Military Expo in Washington, D.C

looking at all the things the Marine Corps is showcasing that it needs from industry. One of those needs is a multi-billion dollar program to replace the light armored reconnaissance vehicle

with the advanced reconnaissance vehicle. That's down to two competitors, Textron Systems and General Dynamic Land Systems

We've talked to them both. We're at the Textron Systems booth here at Modern Day Marine to look at the advanced reconnaissance vehicle

David, could you tell me a little bit about what we're looking at behind us? Sure. This is our second prototype vehicle

The Marines are testing this vehicle right now. This is the Command Control Communications and Cyber UAS variant

They call it the C4 UAS variant. It's a very challenging prototype with the integration of all of this computer equipment

all that has to be shielded from each other in an EMI, EMC, safe environment

But the Marines have been testing this over the last year and a half or so. and we are in the throes now of producing the second prototype within the mobile reconnaissance battalion

That's the 30 millimeter variant. So these two types, these two variants, obviously, have different kinds of missions

Tell us about what each one will be doing once fielded. So this, the Marines refer to this one as the battlefield quarterback

It is in the mobile reconnaissance battalion. This will be the dissemination of information and the taking of information

satellite communications back to higher headquarters, back to the ship, but really networking all of the vehicles together within the Mobile Reconnaissance Battalion

The 30mm is kind of an infantry fighting variant within the family

and the Marines anticipate having a family of vehicles, each having a different mission purpose or mission scenario

and all really taking advantage of a common architecture, a modular open system architecture, common chassis or hull, common suspension, common power pack

to be able to ease in the logistics. Can you talk a little bit about the development now? Now, Textron Systems has done a little bit of this work on their own

You guys were kind of leading on this in terms of development. Tell us about what Textron has been doing to develop this vehicle

So early on, to be able to validate ourselves, to be able to go win that initial phase to build this prototype

on our own funding, we built our own, what we call an alpha prototype

We took that out to Nevada Automotive Test Center, again, on our own funding

to make sure that it was durable, it was reliable. We put several thousand miles on it to be able to know that when we built this one for the Marines

it will have been run through the same test protocol, the same evaluations that the Marines ran with this vehicle

And it just gave us a sense of confidence that we could go into this phase of the program having already built a prototype

The Marines have had a chance to kind of kick the tires on this and run it a little bit, as you said, in their testing

What kind of feedback have you gotten so far from the Marine Corps that you could talk about? Well, first, we've got a great relationship with our program management office, PMLAV office, as well as the PEO land systems within the Marines

They have been completely open and honest with us in terms of what they want, in terms of feedback

We've had multiple soldier touch points on this vehicle, maintenance demonstrations, and we take that feedback and we incorporate it into that next prototype vehicle

We incorporate it backwards into this vehicle. Just making sure that this vehicle is easy to use, it's easy to maintain, it's easy to operate

and that's really what we've been focused on with this. And I know they're looking at this more, in fact, someone told me recently

they wish they wouldn't have called it the advanced reconnaissance vehicle. They wanted to call it the advanced reconnaissance system because of all the different things that work with it

So what are some of the complications you have to work with when you think about adding all these systems to this hull

I would tell you that Textron Systems has been integrating into systems for over four decades

We do unmanned aircraft systems We do robotic combat systems for the Army And so it no surprise to me that this is not a vehicle and should be referred to as a system or a system of systems

And it's really about integrating capability into a durable, reliable automotive system, a survivable automotive system

We've also, on our own investment, we've taken this out and blast tested it

Not the vehicle, but the hull itself to make sure that before we produce a lot of them, it's survivable

And it's soldiers inside are survivable. And so beyond that, it's really coming into a modular open system architecture

I can't emphasize that enough, that doing that hard work up front for an architecture that's going to be common across the family of vehicles and then delivering to the Marines a systems integration lab that enables them not to have the vendor lock, not to have to come back to us every time they want to iterate on the design

They have their own system integration lab or a simulation where they can take a component out, put a different component in, where they can say, hey, I really want to do this with this vehicle or the next variant, and I want to put this system into the architecture

I don't have to get it from you. You don't have to get it from you. You go select it, put it in, and you see how it operates within the architecture of this system

And that's another thing that the Marines have looked out ahead in the growth capacity of this vehicle

And owning a systems integration lab that is specific to this architecture enables them to not have to come back to us to do that

They give you a lot of different options, especially for a vehicle that could be in service for decades if adopted in the field

Another thing that we're doing in these systems is building growth capacity into them, not just in size, weight, and power, in weight

We also know from unmanned aircraft systems that it never gets lighter

You know, they want to do more. They figure out how to do it, and they want to integrate more capability into the system

So we have to build weight capacity into the system, weight growth into the system

What the Marines want, they want ease of transport of this vehicle

They want four of them to go on a ship-to-shore connector. We just happen to be the prime contractor for the ship-to-shore connector

So we've already put these systems and figured out how they would be transported on board a ship-to-shore connector

And so the Marines are thinking through all of this growth. You know, what do they want to do in 10 years with it

How do they iterate on it on their own without having to come back to the vendor to do that, the whole modular open system architecture

And they're thinking through what that family is going to look like

Now, I know this is replacing a system that's been around for decades

Were you guys able to learn anything from the employment and operation and use of the light armored vehicle that's basically been in service since the 1980s

We have. You know, this vehicle is required to swim, and that's difficult

I would say it's a training challenge above most. I mean, you know, entering a surf zone from the land, going out through the surf zone into the open water, and then coming back through the surf zone is challenging

We were out at Pendleton swimming this vehicle as well and figuring out how to train it and how to make it easier to operate once you're in the water

That's one of the things we learned from LAV and we learned from ACV, the amphibious combat vehicle, the challenges associated with swimming a vehicle

The family of the light armored vehicle 25s, I would say it's still up to the Marines as to the different variants that they're going to have

So they're probably learning more from what the 21st century battlefield, particularly in the areas in which the Marines operate, in the littorals

they going to be learning as to what was working with the LAV and what do they perhaps want to do better with this system It replacing that but also adding a lot more that that vehicle never had to do Much more Much more computing capability Well I just curious to see what do you think are the next steps on this

Obviously, you have competition. It's not just Textron. What do you think is next in development as far as operational testing or even potential contracts and fielding

Well, from our standpoint, we're just going to hit our marks. We're going to execute the contracts that we have right now

We're going to deliver a systems integration lab later in May, followed by a Marine Corps demonstration

We're building the 30 millimeter prototype now. We're going to deliver that to the Marines in September and they're going to go do move and shoot

They're going to go do the live fire testing. We're also going to take that variant out on our own to automotive tests, to durability tests

to make sure that the different vehicle dynamics, the different center of gravities with that vehicle

We want to make sure that it behaves the same in terms of the suspension and the drivetrain and the power, the propulsion system

So that's what we're going to be doing for the remainder of this year. And we also look forward to the competition that's in front of us for the next phase of this program

We anticipate kicking off in 2026, which is the EMD phase. Well, thanks so much for walking us through the development here

Good luck with all your next steps on this. A lot of moving parts, a lot of work to be done. Appreciate you very much

Thank you. So now as we leave the Textron Systems Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle, we're going to go over and look at the General Dynamics Land Systems Vehicle and compare the two

So we're at the General Dynamics Land Systems booth at Modern Day Marines to look at the Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle

Steve, can you tell me a little bit what I'm looking at behind me? Yeah, this is our third generation ARV demonstrator vehicle that we've made

We've been working on this program since about 2017. This is our advanced bespoke designed vehicle for the Marine Corps environment

It's an eight-wheeled vehicle with a high-tech suspension and a very robust swimming capability

The vehicle has been designed for maintainability in mind. You can change a tire without even getting a jack underneath it using the height management system on it

You can remove and replace a power pack within 45 minutes on the vehicle in the field, so it's very user-friendly

This particular prototype is our C4UAS prototype. So it's a command and control variant that also has an ability to have a UAS that can go a long distance from the vehicle and bring that sensor feed back in

The C5 capability on this vehicle is modular and scalable. And so it works today and it will accommodate any future needs for the Marines in the future

Well, no, this command variant is probably the most complicated version of what the Marine Corps wants for good reason

But there are also maybe some other variants that they may want or at least ones that they've already decided on

Can you talk about other ways that you might have to adapt this vehicle? Absolutely. So you're absolutely right

The command and control variant is the most complicated. But what we've taken in mind in the design is to try to make sure commonality is an important aspect across the whole family of vehicles

Currently, we're actually building the 30 mil turret variant of the ARV family

The majority of the vehicle is common between them. We just have different seating set up in the background, but the actual core architecture of the vehicle is the same

There's also a logistics variant that will be coming up shortly. We've got a design for that one

And the three remaining variants that the Marine Corps are looking for are the organic precision fires variant, which uses alerting munitions

And there's a recovery variant with a crane and a winch. And then also a counter UAS variant, which is important in today's battle environment

What's important about knowing how each of these are going to have to be configured differently? Obviously, they have different mission sets, but there's important reasons why you can't put certain things on certain parts of the vehicle, right

I mean, it's basically there's a lot of planning that's involved. Oh, absolutely. As you can see on this variant, for example, we have an extensive amount of comms and radio transmission on here

So we have to make sure from counter UAS systems to the radio systems that we have effective capability for each individual system while not drowning out each other

So you have to make sure you understand what those capabilities are so that we can position those on vehicle and be able to control them within the vehicle depending if you have any failures that the crew on site can easily adapt and go from there One of the things from a commonality side across all the variants

that we've been looking at is, as I mentioned, commonality. So the driver's station, vehicle

commander's station, and then in the different variants, we're trying to maintain the same

user experience with the workstations in all the variants. So if you're trained on one variant

you can flip into the other one and it's not a new training scenario. We also have been working

closely on the maintainability side of the vehicle. And you'll see later in terms of our

digital training system where you can actually do training off vehicle. And so that once you

actually get in the vehicle, you're ready to go. Combining the virtual and the real. Absolutely. Yep. So that you, before you actually step foot in the vehicle, you already have a very

good understanding of how to use the station, whether it's a driver, whether it's a vehicle

commander or UAS operator in the back, you already have that feel. So then the training timeline is

much expedited. You talked about testing, operational testing by the Marine Corps and kind of what

they're doing and the feedback they provided. You chose, like, what does that testing look like and

what kind of feedback have you been getting? We previously had a 30 millimeter crew turret

variant that we had tested with the Marine Corps at the Nevada Automotive Test Center. And we did

an extensive amount of both mobility and C5 testing there. And then we continued for that

same vehicle, we took it out to Camp Pendleton and did a lot of swim testing in the ocean for

hours on end. Very good feedback from the Marines. And then also a lot of C5 testing with MCTISA

On this particular variant, we did, again, with the government, we did additional testing

a lot of mobility testing, verified the core architecture of the vehicle. We made improvements

from that first one. As we were continuing on with the different generations, we get that feedback

from the Marines and the users, put that into the vehicle, and then move on and make that better

So this vehicle went through extensive mobility testing. Again, I was at the Nevada Automotive Test Center

And then we went to Camp Pendleton and did surf transition testing right through the surf

And it performed excellent and very safe through that. When you're designing a vehicle that has to swim, what are some of the big factors you have to think about there

Everything, yes. One of the biggest things are corrosion, right? So inherently, as being the vehicle architect for the vehicle, I make sure all of the different subsystem designs

we that's one of the very first things that we have to look at is how how does how can you make

your system as resistant to corrosion as possible right whether it's the type of bolts you use or

the type of fasteners or making sure that you don't have water pooling in different areas so

corrosion is a big thing making sure that it's simple to use make sure that you have a lightweight

vehicle but buoyant so we have lots of reserved buoyancy on this vehicle it's very stable in the

water even if something happens you know you have a stray wave the vehicle is very stable and it's

not going to have any issues. Now, this is replacing a decades-old vehicle, you know

the light armored vehicle for the reconnaissance battalions, but it's adding a lot of capabilities

like we've already talked about. Have we been able to learn anything from the operational employment and use of its predecessor in developing this new variant? Absolutely. As being the

original OEM on the LAV25, we're able to, we understand where the customer needs are and how

that operational environment is. There's a lot of cross-country mileage, so this vehicle has to be

very robust, very resilient. And even though we're adding new capability, you can't lose that inherent

robustness of that vehicle. So we're able to understand and get a lot of feedback on how the

users today would use the vehicles and make sure that we don't lose that while making sure we get

the feedback and enhance those capabilities so it's easier for them in the future. You can imagine

with all of the new technology we have on the vehicle, it can be overwhelming. So we're taking

a real hard look at how can we make it simpler for the driver, the VC, the crew in the back

to make sure they all understand how to do their job without over-burdening or over-taxing

their senses with all of this information so they can process it quickly, action it

and move on with the next tasks