--- title: "The Marines are getting a new light armored vehicle" date: "2020-04-29" modified: "2020-10-30" authors: - name: "Blake Stilwell" job_title: "Editor-In-Chief, Air Force Veteran" link: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/authors/blake/" url: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-tactical/marines-light-armored-vehicle/" categories: - "Military News" - "Tactical" - "Vehicles" --- # The Marines are getting a new light armored vehicle ![]() The Marines are trading in their old Light Armored Vehicle for a new model – and it's about time. In an age of stealth tanks and lasers, the Marines are still driving around in the 1983 model. But you'd never know it. The Corps' LAV-25 has seen action from Panama to Afghanistan and everywhere in between, and few would complain about her performance. But times are changing, and even the Marines are going to change with them. Within the next decade, for sure. --- ![]() Staff Sgt. Heighnbaugh, a platoon sgt. with the 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Platoon (reinforced), Battalion Landing Team, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, fires a M240G medium machinegun on a light armored vehicle at the Su Song Ri Range, South Korea. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Kamran Sadaghiani) The modern Armored Reconnaissance Vehicle will likely show up "in the next decade," according to the Marine Corps. It will be highly mobile, networked, transportable, protected and lethal while the new technology allows it to take on the roles normally used by more heavily armored vehicles. "The ARV will be an advanced combat vehicle system, capable of fighting for information that balances competing capability demands to sense, shoot, move, communicate and remain transportable as part of the naval expeditionary force," said John "Steve" Myers, program manager for MCSC's LAV portfolio. ![]() A LAV-25 patrolling the area near the Panama Canal during Operation Just Cause. The Marine Corps didn't list any specific roles or technologies they would look at integrating into the new modern Armored Reconnaissance Vehicle but the Office of Naval Research "has begun researching advanced technologies to inform requirements, technology readiness assessments, and competitive prototyping efforts for the next-generation ARV." "The Marine Corps is examining different threats," said Kimberly Bowen, deputy program manager of Light Armored Vehicles. "The ARV helps the Corps maintain an overmatched peer-to-peer capability." The Corps wants the new vehicle to equip the Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalions inside Marine divisions with a solution for combined arms, all-weather, sustained reconnaissance, and security missions by the mid-2020s. ## Author Blake Stilwell is We Are The Mighty's Editor-in-Chief, covering military news, entertainment, and history, along with veteran education, employment and entrepreneurship. He is a former U.S. Air Force combat cameraman with degrees in Graphic Design, Television and Film, International Relations, Public Relations, Business Management and Middle Eastern Affairs. After leaving the military, he began working in film and television production in New York and Los Angeles, work that included ABC News, NBC Olympics, and HBO Sports. He then spent two years in Washington with White House Communications, before joining the Near East Foundation. At NEF he served as an International Development Fellow, then Communications Officer, and finally, Media Officer for the Middle East and Africa. Based in the Palestinian Territory, he coordinated strategic communications between eight country offices, international media, and government and NGO partners. He began a career focused on writing and editing in 2015 with We Are The Mighty. He left in 2019 for Military.com, but returned as Editor-in-Chief in 2025. Blake’s work has been seen on CBS News, Fox News, CBC, The Chicago Tribune, Task & Purpose, Military Times, Recoil, Skillset, American History, and was shockingly even used in a Supreme Court argument. He is an avid traveler and small business owner in Ohio, where he spends most of his energy fixing up a very old house. ### Author social links [Facebook]() [Twitter]() [Instagram]() [LinkedIn]()