U.S. Marines begin fielding their cannon-armed amphibious vehicle

The U.S. Marine Corps has begun fielding its most heavily armed amphibious vehicle, a tracked fighting machine that can swim from a ship in open ocean, roll onto a hostile beach under fire, and engage enemy targets with a 30mm automatic cannon at ranges that far exceed anything the Corps’ previous amphibious platforms could match.

BAE Systems confirmed the first fielding of the ACV-30 to the Marines on May 28, describing the delivery as a transformation in amphibious capability that gives the Marine Corps a direct-fire punch it has not carried ashore from the water before.

The ACV-30 is a variant of the Amphibious Combat Vehicle family built by BAE Systems, the British-American defense contractor responsible for a significant portion of the U.S. military’s ground vehicle portfolio. The base ACV platform, which entered Marine Corps service beginning in 2020 as the replacement for the Vietnam-era AAV-7 amphibious assault vehicle, is an 8×8 wheeled armored vehicle that can cross open ocean from a ship’s well deck, drive ashore through surf, and continue operating inland without stopping to reconfigure. What distinguishes the ACV-30 from the baseline personnel carrier variant is the addition of a stabilized 30mm medium caliber cannon turret built by Norway’s Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace, mounted remotely so the crew can operate it from a protected position inside the vehicle hull rather than exposing a gunner above the armor line.

The 30mm cannon is the Mk 44 Bushmaster II, a dual-feed automatic cannon capable of firing both armor-piercing and high-explosive rounds at selectable rates, giving the gunner the ability to switch between ammunition types in the middle of an engagement without interrupting fire. The turret package, designated the Medium Caliber Turret-30 or MCT-30, integrates independent commander and gunner sights with day cameras, thermal imagers, and a laser range finder, giving the crew 24-hour all-weather engagement capability. The commander can operate the turret independently of the gunner, searching for threats while the gunner maintains track on a different target, a feature that becomes critical when the vehicle is the primary fire support element for a dismounted patrol in complex terrain. BAE Systems’ specifications describe both commander and gunner as having independent day and thermal optics with a laser range finder and pointer, a fire control architecture borrowed from modern infantry fighting vehicles and now for the first time paired with an open-ocean capable amphibious hull.

The ACV’s underlying platform performance makes the ACV-30 genuinely distinctive among amphibious vehicles currently in service with any military. The vehicle weighs approximately 32 metric tons (35 short tons), is 9.2 meters (361 inches) long and 3.1 meters (124 inches) wide, reaches speeds exceeding 105 km/h (65 mph) on paved roads, and maintains a road range of up to 523 kilometers (325 miles) at cruise speed. At sea it sustains more than 6 knots in open-ocean conditions, can operate in Sea State 3, and can push through a 2.7-meter (9-foot) plunging surf zone before its tracks engage the sand. The hull is designed to absorb mine blasts, IED detonations, and kinetic energy penetrators, with energy-absorbing seats inside to protect occupants from underbelly explosions, and an automatic fire suppression system activates independently when the vehicle’s sensors detect fire or heat signatures consistent with an interior compartment emergency.

The Marine Corps awarded BAE Systems a $188 million full-rate production contract in April 2025 covering 30 ACV-30 vehicles, and followed that with a $195 million contract in February 2026 for 30 more, bringing total ACV-30 orders under the current contract vehicle to more than 150 units. Production takes place at BAE Systems facilities in York and Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and Charleston, South Carolina, with Kongsberg responsible for the turret integration. The initial production contract had an expected completion timeline extending into the third quarter of 2026, and the May 29 fielding announcement confirms that deliveries are now moving from factory floor to Marine Corps units.

The ACV-30 sits within the Marine Corps’ Force Design 2030 modernization framework, the major restructuring of the service that retired all tanks, cut infantry regiment numbers, and redirected investment toward maritime expeditionary capabilities suited to the Indo-Pacific. That framework identified the ability to seize and hold islands and littoral chokepoints under contested conditions as the Marine Corps’ primary future mission, and the ACV family is the vehicle the Corps built its amphibious maneuver concept around. The AAV-7 it replaced was a Vietnam-era design that could barely manage a few knots in calm water close to the beach and had no real open-ocean capability at all. The ACV was designed from the outset to cross the gap between a ship and a beach in conditions where weather, distance, and enemy fires would all be working against it.

Rebecca McGrane, BAE Systems vice president for amphibious programs, articulated the program’s intent when a prior production contract was awarded: “The ACV has shown time and time again how adaptable it is, capable of handling everything from open ocean to tough inland missions. With its ability to integrate advanced systems like the 30mm cannon, we’re ensuring Marines are ready to meet any challenge, anywhere.” The 30mm cannon on the ACV-30 extends that logic from mobility to firepower, giving vehicle commanders the ability to suppress and destroy threats from the surf zone through urban terrain without waiting for air support or artillery to arrive.

The strategic context driving the ACV-30’s development and fielding is the increasing recognition across the Department of War that island seizure operations in the Pacific would require amphibious vehicles capable of sustained direct fire against hardened defensive positions, light vehicles, and drone threats simultaneously. A squad of Marines in a baseline ACV-P carries a heavy machine gun for protection. A squad in an ACV-30 carries a 30mm cannon that can put rounds through light armor at distances exceeding 1.5 kilometers (approximately 1 mile), while the vehicle itself is still in the water and the enemy ashore may not yet be certain whether this is a feint or the main assault.