The Iveco SuperAV is an

eight-wheel drive Eight-wheel drive, often notated as 8WD or 8×8, is a drivetrain configuration that allows all eight wheels of an eight-wheeled vehicle to be drive wheels simultaneously. Unlike four-wheel drive drivetrains, the configuration is largely confin ...

tactical vehicle developed by the Italian commercial vehicle company

Iveco Iveco S.p.A., an acronym for Industrial Vehicles Corporation, is an Italian multinational transport vehicle manufacturing company with headquarters in Turin, Italy. It designs and builds light, medium, and heavy Commercial vehicle, commercial veh ...

. A version made in collaboration with

BAE Systems BAE Systems plc is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Aerospace industry, aerospace, military technology, military and information security company, based in London. It is the largest manufacturer in Britain as of 2017. It is ...

was selected by the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionar ...

for the Amphibious Combat Vehicle program.BAE Systems Will Make Marines' New Wheeled Amphibious Combat Vehicle
''DoD Buzz''. 19 June 2018.

Design

Mobility

The SuperAV is an 8x8 wheeled amphibious vehicle. It is powered by an Iveco Cursor 13 6L turbocharged multifuel

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compr ...

coupled with a ZF 7HP902 gearbox (seven forward and one reverse). It has a top speed of on land and on water. The vehicle's range is on land and on water. The wheels have a central tire inflation system and run-flat tires. The SuperAV is fully amphibious, able to operate in and over sea state 3. It can be air transported by a

C-130 Hercules The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed Corporation, Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin). Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 w ...

or an

Airbus A400M The Airbus A400M AtlasNamed after the Atlas (mythology), Greek mythological figure. is a European four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft. It was designed by Airbus Military, now Airbus Defence and Space, as a tactical airlifter with ...

. - Military-Today.com

Protection

Iveco claims the SuperAV has the highest protection level in its class. It incorporates a high hardness

monocoque Monocoque ( ), also called structural skin, is a structural system in which loads are supported by an object's external skin, in a manner similar to an egg shell. The word ''monocoque'' is a French term for "single shell". First used for boats, ...

steel

hull Hull may refer to: Structures * The hull of an armored fighting vehicle, housing the chassis * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a sea-going craft * Submarine hull Ma ...

, able to protect the crew from small arms fire, artillery shell splinters, landmines, and

IEDs An improvised explosive device (IED) is a bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action. It may be constructed of conventional military explosives, such as an artillery shell, attached to a detonating mechan ...

. Add-on armor kits are available. The vehicle has

NBC protection Chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear defense (CBRN defense) or Nuclear, biological, and chemical protection (NBC protection) is a class of protective measures taken in situations where chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclea ...

and

automatic fire suppression Automatic fire suppression systems control and extinguish fires without human intervention. Examples of automatic systems include fire sprinkler system, gaseous fire suppression, and condensed aerosol fire suppression. When fires are extinguishe ...

systems.

Armament

The SuperAV can be fitted with weapons systems up to 40 mm in

remote weapons station A remote controlled weapon station (RCWS), remotely operated weapon system (ROWS), or remote weapon system (RWS), is a remotely operated light or medium-caliber weapon system, often equipped with a fire-control system, that can be installed on Co ...

s or turrets. If a two-man manned turret is installed, troops capacity is reduced from 12 to 8. If a remote turret is installed, troops capacity is only reduced to 10.

Versions

Iveco SuperAV

The SuperAV is available as an armoured personnel carrier, anti-tank vehicle, mortar carrier, engineer vehicle, recovery vehicle, ambulance, and command post vehicle.

Iveco SuperAV Land

A land variant is being developed by Iveco.

ACV variants

*ACV personnel carrier (ACV-P) *ACV command (ACV-C) *ACV 30 mm cannon (ACV-30) *ACV recovery (ACV-R)

History

In 1999, the

Brazilian Army The Brazilian Army (; EB) is the branch of the Brazilian Armed Forces responsible, externally, for defending the country in eminently terrestrial operations and, internally, for guaranteeing law, order and the constitutional branches, subordina ...

made a requirement for the development of a new family of APC and IFV, by 2009 a contract was signed with Iveco Latin America for the production of 2,044 units of the VBTP-MR Guarani 6x6 APC, the 8x8 variant was later adapted to the SuperAV. In 2010, the SuperAV was offered to the

Italian Army The Italian Army ( []) is the Army, land force branch of the Italian Armed Forces. The army's history dates back to the Italian unification in the 1850s and 1860s. The army fought in colonial engagements in China and Italo-Turkish War, Libya. It ...

for their requirement for an amphibious vehicle to replace the AAVTP-7A1 and was selected.Marine ACV Competitors Show Off Prototypes as Program Downselect Nears
- News.USNI.org, 28 September 2015

ACV

In 2011, Iveco entered an agreement with

to offer the SuperAV to the

in their

Marine Personnel Carrier The Marine Personnel Carrier (MPC) is a wheeled armored personnel carrier under development for acquisition by the United States Marine Corps. The program was canceled in 2013 but resurrected in 2014 as part of phase one of the Amphibious Combat ...

program. In August 2012, the SuperAV was selected along with three other vehicles for further demonstration and study. BAE had to redesign the original SuperAV to make it compatible with the Marine Corps mandate that any designs be based on existing platforms. - Defensetech.org, 11 October 2013 The MPC submission was modified to carry three crew and nine tall marines standing, each weighing with gear. It had a V-shaped hull to withstand strong bomb blasts and could travel up to from a dock landing ship to shore and back. The unit cost was $3.5 million. The vehicle swam through the water using two counter-rotating propellers, each with 284 kN () of thrust. On 8 May 2013, BAE and Iveco successfully completed 12 days of evaluations on the SuperAV for the MPC program at

Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton is the major West Coast base of the United States Marine Corps and is one of the largest Marine Corps bases in the United States. It is on the Southern California coast in San Diego County and is bordered by ...

. The evaluations included a water performance demonstrations in various sea conditions, as well as human factors and stowage capacity. The SuperAV, weighing 26 tons, exceeded all vehicle requirements, performing personnel exit drills in less than 17 seconds and showcasing advanced interior layout and compartmentalization that allowed for the stowage of more than three days of supplies without jeopardizing the survivability of the vehicle and personnel. Similar tests conducted by Iveco confirmed the vehicle's ability to be launched and recovered from ships and transition in surf zones. BAE and Iveco then prepared for survivability demonstrations in the summer. The Marine Personnel Carrier was put on hold in June 2013, restarted in February 2014, and then restructured as Phase 1 of the Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV) program, which includes the previous MPC competitor entries. BAE submitted the SuperAV as their ACV 1.1 entry on 20 May 2015. The BAE/Iveco version of the SuperAV submitted to the Marines carries a crew of three with 11 embarked Marines; key to the design is its ability to already meet ACV 1.2 requirements, being configured for 13 seats, having the ability to launch and recover from a

well deck In traditional nautical use, well decks were decks lower than decks fore and aft, usually at the main deck level, so that breaks appear in the main deck profile, as opposed to a flush deck profile. The term goes back to the days of sail. Late-2 ...

, and being able to integrate an unmanned turret with a heavy cannon. Iveco's H-Drive System provides power to individual wheels, simulating a tracked vehicle, so it can continue operating if any wheels are damaged or blown off and has better mobility in soft soil or sand. Since the H-Drive System eliminates axles through use of a string of three shafts on each side, a V-shaped hull is able to be used for blast protection, and the floor is also not connected to the hull, instead bolting onto the bottom of the seats, creating less headroom for occupants but absorbing more energy from an underbody blast. Space in the interior is taken up by pipes, wires, and things needed to make systems run, but that is because the space behind the seats is reserved for Marines' gear. Fuel tanks are external for passenger protection, and unlike the AAV, the SuperAV doesn't expel black smoke upon engine start and has a quietly running engine. The SuperAV uses a 690 hp engine to propel the vehicle at in water and up to on land;

reserve buoyancy The load line, also known as Plimsoll line, indicates the legal limit to which a ship may be loaded for specific water types and temperatures in order to safely maintain buoyancy, particularly with regard to the hazard of waves. The load line is ...

is 21 percent.BAE, SAIC Named as Finalists in Marines ACV Competition
- Defensenews.com, 24 November 2015 It weighs 29 tonnes (63,000 lb) with a payload capacity, and has a range of at sea followed by on land, or entirely on land. On 24 November 2015, the Marines selected the BAE Systems/Iveco SuperAV, along with the SAIC

Terrex The Terrex Infantry Carrier Vehicle (ICV) is an 8x8 armoured fighting vehicle (AFV) developed by ST Engineering of Singapore and Timoney Technology of Ireland, and produced by ST Engineering Land Systems (a corporate subsidiary of ST Engineeri ...

, to move on to the engineering and manufacturing development phase of the ACV 1.1 program. BAE was awarded a $103.8 million contract to build 16 vehicles by late 2016 for testing, which will begin in early 2017 and last one year. The company plans to build its ACV prototypes at its

York, Pennsylvania York is a city in York County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. Located in South Central Pennsylvania, the city's population was 44,800 at the time of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in ...

facility. A final winner is planned to be chosen in 2018 to build 204 vehicles, with the first entering service in 2020 and all delivered by 2023. On 19 June 2018, the Marine Corps announced that BAE Systems had been selected to deliver vehicles for the ACV 1.1 program to begin replacing the Amphibious Assault Vehicle; 30 low-rate production vehicles will be built with deliveries beginning in late 2019. The Marine Corps plans to buy 204 ACV 1.1 vehicles in this first phase of the effort with initial operating capability planned for early 2020, fielding in late 2020, and full operational capability scheduled for 2023. The design will be upgraded before moving on to the ACV 1.2 phase. On 15 October 2020, Iveco announced that the first fleet of 18 ACVs had been delivered to a platoon of Marines after five years of testing development. They were officially introduced into Marine Corps service on 4 November. Initial Operational Capability (IOC) was declared on 13 November, and full-rate production was approved on 10 December.

Operators

Current operators

; (objective of 632) : Variants ordered: :* BAE ACV-P :* BAE ACV-C :* BAE ACV-30 :* BAE ACV-R

Future operators

; (36) :

Italian Navy The Italian Navy (; abbreviated as MM) is one of the four branches of Italian Armed Forces and was formed in 1946 from what remained of the ''Regia Marina'' (Royal Navy) after World War II. , the Italian Navy had a strength of 30,923 active per ...

: 36 Iveco SUPERAV ordered in 2023. ; : Selected to be the successor to the AAV-7A1 in a first phase, and it could replace the Piranha IIIC 8×8. It would be produced under licence in Spain.

Potential operators

; (500) : Potential orders of the

Chilean Armed Forces The Chilean Armed Forces () is the unified military organization comprising the Chilean Army, Air Force, and Navy. The President of Chile is the commander-in-chief of the military, and formulates policy through the Minister of Defence. In recent ...

: :*

Chilean Army The Chilean Army () is the land arm of the Chilean Armed Forces. This 80,000-person army (9,200 of which are conscripts) is organized into six divisions, an army aviation brigade and a special operations brigade. In recent years, and after sever ...

: Between 450 and 500 units Iveco SUPERAV. :*

Chilean Navy The Chilean Navy () is the naval warfare service branch of the Chilean Armed Forces. It is under the Ministry of National Defense (Chile), Ministry of National Defense. Its headquarters are at Edificio Armada de Chile, Valparaiso. History Ori ...

:**

Chilean Marine Corps The Chilean Marine Corps () is an entity of the Chilean Navy special forces which specializes in amphibious assaults. History The Marine Corps was born with the establishment of the first armed forces of an independent Chile: the Corps was f ...

: 30 Amphibious Combat Vehicle. ; (110) : Planned complementary orders of the

Italian armed forces The Italian Armed Forces (, ) encompass the Italian Army, the Italian Navy and the Italian Air Force. A fourth Military branch, branch of the armed forces, known as the Carabinieri, take on the role as the nation's Gendarmerie, military police an ...

: :*

: 28 Iveco SUPERAV :*

: 64 Iveco SUPERAV :* Italian Army Engineering Corp: 18 Iveco SUPERAV ; (hundreds) : The Qatar Armed Forces are looking to purchase hundreds of 8×8 armoured fighting vehicles. The existing competitors are: :* Iveco SUPERAV Land :* BMC ALTUG :*

Boxer Boxer most commonly refers to: *Boxer (boxing), a competitor in the sport of boxing * Boxer (dog), a breed of dog Boxer or boxers may also refer to: Animal kingdom * Boxer crab * Boxer shrimp, a small group of decapod crustaceans * Boxer snipe ee ...

:* LAV-700 "Desert Viper" :* VBCI-2

References

External links

Official website

Land version of IVECO Super AV for 8 soldiers instead of 13, with STANAG 4569 armor
{{Modern IFV and APC LMV Wheeled amphibious armoured fighting vehicles Eight-wheeled vehicles Amphibious armoured personnel carriers Wheeled armoured personnel carriers Armoured personnel carriers of Italy Infantry fighting vehicles of the post–Cold War period Armoured fighting vehicles of the post–Cold War period