The Marines at Pendleton are testing a new vehicle to replace the aging equipment used when nine troops drowned in 2020. The Amphibious Combat Vehicle got its first real-world test at the Iron Fist training exercise at Camp Pendleton Wednesday.
The new wheeled vehicle is designed to be more powerful on land and safer in the water than the 1980’s era personnel carrier, which sank off San Clemente island in July 2020.
“Drivers now have additional sensors," said Capt. David Perez, commander of C Company, 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion. "They have a screen in front of them, a display panel that will tell them if something is wrong. You don’t have to go down there and manually check something.”
The new vehicles used during Iron Fist will deploy with the Marines for the first time at the end of the year. There have been issues with the new vehicle. A ship to shore exercise similar to the one where troops drowned was canceled after a problem was uncovered with the towing system. A fix wasn't ready in time. In December of last year, the Marines banned the older Amphibious Assault Vehicles (AAV) from use in the water after another round of serious safety issues were uncovered with the aging fleet.
Lt. Gen. George Smith, commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said the Marines amphibious program is safe.
“We as a Marine Corps learned a number of lessons from the AAV tragedy of July 2020 and we have incorporated all of them,” he said.
Japan still uses AAV’s so both vehicles were on display at Iron Fist, a two-nation exercise which has been going on for over a month at Pendleton. Major General Shingo Nashinoki, commander of the Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade of the Japan Self-Defense Force said the AAV's were inspected after the accident that killed eight Marines and a sailor. The exercise was side-tracked January 17 when troops from both sides contracted COVID-19. It was also the first time the two sides trained with live fire.
As Iron Fist plays out on the training grounds of Camp Pendleton, a group of six Marine officers and enlisted Marines have been in hearings on base to determine whether they will be kicked out of the Marines for their role in the July 2020 training accident.
