Marines receive upgraded Assault Amphibious Vehicle

QUANTICO, Va., March 14 (UPI) -- The first Assault Amphibious Vehicle modernized by Science Applications International Corp. has been delivered to the U.S. Marine Corps for testing.

The Survivability Upgrade, being performed on 10 older AAV-P7 models, involves stripping down the vehicles to the hull and rebuilding them from the bottom up.

The new survivability features were added after their intended successor vehicle -- the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle -- was canceled because of costs considerations and insufficient performance.

"Our employees and partners worked tirelessly to deliver this solution to the Marine Corps two months ahead of schedule," said Tom Watson, SAIC senior vice president and general manager of the Navy and Marine Corps Customer Group. "We are honored to support the Marine Corps in this historic endeavor to upgrade vehicles that have not been significantly modernized in more than 30 years."

The vehicle delivered was modernized at an SAIC facility in South Carolina and transported to U.S. Marine Corps base in Quantico, Va. Nine more are to follow for 12 months of testing and evaluation.