New US Marine Amphib Vehicle - AWESOME!

[skb12172]

I want one!

LINK

Watch the imbedded video. It's great.

[Rod]

That's the HALF SCALE version. Holy crap!

Moves about as fast as the space shuttle transporter and imagine having to repair the track on that monstrosity.

[MiddleAgedKen]

It's better than this early prototype, to be sure. (j/k)

[Old Grafton]

Oops. Could have been ALL bad.

I watched the 1/2 scale prototype; what happens to the track flappers if it has to back up in a hurry? CAN it back up?

[PawPaw]

What happens when you throw a track to the inside? Believe me, it will happen. Track technology may have evolved over the past 20 years, but the basic E-2 track vehicle driver is still a basic, E-2 track vehicle driver. When you throw a track to the inside, you go from ultra-mobile fighting vehicle, to immobile target in about 2 seconds.

Edit to add. After watching the video, I can see that it would be useful as a follow on vehicle, for logistics and follow-on personnel once you've established a beachhead. But, as a first wave vehicle, i dunno. All I could think, watching it come onshore is how much I'd like to put a HEAT round through that nice flat front. Easy target, great laser return, I could put a HEAT round through it at 3200 meters.

Bit, it might have value as a cargo carrier, after the beachhead is established. It's still going to throw tracks, though. They all do.

[D5CAV]

I want one!

Track vehicle maintenance is a b###h. We figured about an hour of operator maintenance per hour of operation. Four man crew. An hour of maintenance before morning chow, then an hour of maintenance before evening chow.

If something broke, you were looking at the whole crew spending the entire day on maintenance.

Coincidentally, this was SOP for the mounts of the old horse cavalry. An hour taking care of your mount before breakfast, and an hour taking care of your mount before dinner.

Plus ce chance, plus ce le mems chose.

[Aesop]

That's a sixth- or tenth-wave logistics vehicle, not an assault transport for combat troops.
So the only HEAT rounds in the vicinity when it rolls up will likely be in the cargo bed.
The thing was made to haul M-1A1s to shore, along with crates of supplies and prime movers with trailers.
They're slower than LCACs, but probably hella cheaper, and these things will be owned by the MAU, not the Navy.
And they won't be driven by E-2s. E-6s or -7s more likely, if not an O. This thing is closer to a vessel than a vehicle.
And if something on the track breaks on a vehicle twice this size, there won't be any crew maintenance. It's going to a dry-dock. You'd need a crane just to pick up a single track link.

B-roll footage of the UHAC for a different viewpoint.
(Sidenote: Anybody want to ID the vehicle at 6:25? It's looks like a product-improved HMMV done right.)

Unfortunately, the P-7 AAV is still a 40+-year-old dinosaur, with no sign of a replacement coming anytime until its currently planned 2030(!) retirement date.
When it will likely be older than any general officer or 7-hashmark senior SNCO then still serving in the entire Marine Corps.

[Jericho941]

(Sidenote: Anybody want to ID the vehicle at 6:25? It's looks like a product-improved HMMV done right.)

M1161 Growler, maybe?

[Aesop]

Bingo. Thanks.
But $209K apiece?
Who's making those effing things, Lamborghini??

[Jericho941]

Bingo. Thanks.
But $209K apiece?
Who's making those effing things, Lamborghini??

Someone with the right friends.