GDLS offers glance at Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle prototype design

GDLS has not publicly released an image of its new Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle prototype but said that it is a ‘new, purpose-built' platform, which builds on its previous work to design such a vehicle for the USMC. (GDLS)

General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS) is disclosing additional details about its ‘new, purpose-built' prototype designed to win over the US Marine Corps (USMC) leaders who are on the hunt for a future Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle (ARV).

Phil Skuta, the GDLS director for USMC programmes, provided Janes with an update on the company's ARV prototype. The company plans to deliver this initial platform to the service in December along with a blast hull for survivability testing and a system integration lab, but has not released photos of what this vehicle looks like.

“This was purpose-built. It will pass and disseminate the data that will be going through their intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance network,” he told Janes during a late July interview. “[The prototype is] connecting both to the onboard and offboard sensors, to the uncrewed air, and eventually, ground robotic systems and sensors.”

“It's more of a node within the network that they're going to establish for their future multidomain reconnaissance, and the ARV, in its physical form, is going to be that that hub,” he added.

The service and industrial base have been examining ways to replace the ageing light armoured vehicles (LAVs) for several years. GDLS, for example, began internal research and development work on a platform before the service tapped it to build a technology demonstrator it would use to test out and help to better define vehicle requirements.