![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/aav-300x158.jpg\")
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You may remember back to July 2020, when a US Marine Assault Amphibious Vehicle (AAV) went down in training and killed 8 Marines and a sailor. At the time, the Corps did a thorough inspection of the vehicle fleet:<\/p>\n
\nThe thorough inspection, based off of initial tests developed by the manufacturers, found that nearly all AAVs in the Marine Corps leaked at unacceptable rates.<\/p>\n
Only 10 of 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion\u2019s nearly 200 vehicles passed the more intense inspection, Operations Officer Marine Maj. Justin Davis said while testifying at a board of inquiry for the unit\u2019s former battalion commander, Lt. Col. Keith Brenize, on Dec. 7 at Quantico, Virginia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are old vehicles,\u201d Lt. Col. Matthew Hohl, the executive officer for 3rd AA Battalion, said during his Friday testimony.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a community, AAVs are extremely maintenance heavy,\u201d he added, noting that an AAV typically requires eight hours of maintenance for every hour of operation.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Military Times<\/a><\/p>\n
10 out of 200…like Mr. the Cable Guy would say, I don’t care who you are: that’s a lot. And operational time of an hour for 8 hours of maintenance? Incredible.<\/p>\n
In late 2021 the Marines said the AAV was not to be used on water or landings except in emergencies (it’s replacement, the Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV) would take over the A\u00a0 (Amphibious) bits, despite at the time having a problem with its own towing mechanism. So, on water, no AAVs, used an ACV instead – except they were restricted, too. As of November, ACVs were restricted in surf zone operations, so I guess you could use them off shore and on-shore but not in between? This is a bit confusing.<\/p>\n
So the upshot is that we have these $5,000,000 ACVs,\u00a0 which we are using to replace the 40-year-old AAVs. OK<\/p>\n
In a statement to Defense News on Friday, a Marine Corps spokesman said that while fleet\u2019s average age is 40 years, the vehicles have undergone \u201ca Service Life Extension Program (SLEP), a Reliability Availability Maintainability\/ Rebuilt to Standard Program (RAM\/RS), and scheduled cycles through depot-level maintenance\u201d throughout their lives.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Geez, these things have been through more facelifts than Phyllis Diller. (You youngsters can ask someone older what that means.)<\/p>\n
\nThe U.S. government has approved the sale of dozens of\u00a0 Assault Amphibious Vehicles to Greece roughly a year after the Marine Corps barred the tracked vehicles from regular deployments following a fatal sinking incident in 2020.<\/p>\n
The U.S. State Department approved NATO ally Greece to buy up to 76 Assault Amphibious Vehicles worth $268 million, according to an announcement on Friday. The Marine Corps, which maintains the vehicles are safe, intends to supply the vehicles from its inventory.<\/p>\n
Greece, which has sought the deal since at least 2022, has asked to buy 63 of the personnel variant of the so-called AAV, nine of the command variant and four of the recovery variant, with 63 50-caliber machine guns, as well as MK-19 grenade launchers and M36E T1 thermal sights among the related equipment.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n