LAV-25 наконец заменяют: Cottonmouth против General Dynamics в битве за ARV

The LAV-25 has scouted for the Marines since 1983. In April 2026 the Corps paid General Dynamics and Textron $450 million each to replace it, and still named no winner. This is the full story of the Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle, the program meant to retire the eight-wheeled scout that has led Marine reconnaissance for four decades. We break down the April 2026 pre-production awards, what each company is actually building, and why the Marine Corps deliberately refused to choose between them. Textron's Cottonmouth is a six-by-six clean-sheet design built around a 37,000-pound weight ceiling, a limit set so four vehicles fit aboard a single landing craft air cushion. General Dynamics Land Systems answers with an eight-wheeled design and the lineage of the vehicle being replaced. BAE Systems offered a modified Amphibious Combat Vehicle and was cut in March 2024. The Stryker and other Army vehicles never qualified at all, because Marine reconnaissance has to arrive from the sea. We also cover the argument that nearly killed this program. Force Design 2030 questioned whether manned scout vehicles still make sense when drones see farther than any wheeled vehicle, and the Corps spent years deciding whether the answer to replacing the LAV-25 was another vehicle at all. And we tell the LAV-25's own story: Operation Just Cause in Panama in 1989, the Battle of Khafji in January 1991 where Task Force Shepherd lost eleven Marines in a single night and not one to enemy fire, and the drive toward Baghdad in 2003. Program facts. Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle (ARV). Pre-production development awards of $450 million each to General Dynamics Land Systems and Textron Systems, April 2026. Sixteen vehicles per company across three variants: C4/UAS, 30mm autocannon, and logistics. Deliveries due by the end of fiscal year 2028. Down-select around 2029 to 2030. Production decision in the first quarter of fiscal year 2031. Stated objective 654 vehicles. LAV-25 service life expires in the mid-2030s. #LAV25 #ARV #USMC #Marines #MilitaryVehicles