In the last few months, Marines at Camp Pendleton have been retraining in the use of the new Amphibious Combat Vehicle, a troop carrier that’s expected to be the service’s most valuable asset in the amphibious fight and critical to the nation’s crisis response.
The new training program’s top amphibious combat leaders announced in a media roundtable that 59 Marines have now been certified in the revamped program. Another group will start training in mid-August, with more in September and October.
By the fall of 2024, 250 vehicle operators and 50 vehicle maintainers will have been re-certified, officials said.
The Marines retooled the training after several vehicles flipped in the surf as the crews got familiar with the new transport. There have been no reported injuries.
Marines are now first learning in the classroom, ensuring they have sound fundamentals of the vehicles, officials said. Building on that, they move to “highly controlled practical evaluations” in the motor pool before transitioning into ground-based training. The new training program ends with the water and in the surf zone.
“This is not just pass/fail,” said Col. Howard Hall, who headed designing the new training program earlier this year. “This is a consequential outcome-based approach where we can measure proficiency for safe operations of the vehicle. It is the most comprehensive effort the (amphibious assault) community has undertaken.
“It’s a blank slate,” he said, “to define what right looks like.”
The Amphibious Combat Vehicle is replacing the Amphibious Assault Vehicle the Marines have used for more than 50 years to transport troops between ships and the shore. The vehicles were introduced at Camp Pendleton in 2019 so Marines could put them through their paces and then begin broader training with them before taking the new transports on deployment.
The vehicle developed by BAE Systems – the…
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