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Flashback to November 2021, when it was reported that the United States Marine Corps (USMC) planned to sell its assets in the form of amphibious assault amphibious vehicles (AAV) or LVTP-7 to foreign countries. The divestment roadmap has also been prepared for sale under a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) agreement. And there is news, apparently Greece is the country that will buy the used AAV.
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To be exact, the US Department of State has approved the potential sale of Assault Amphibious Vehicles (AAVs) to Greece for around US$268 million. The offer includes 63 units of the APC variant of the AAV, 9 units of the command variant of the AAV, and 4 units of the recovery variant of the AAV.
In addition, the sales package also includes 63 M2HB 12.7 mm caliber heavy machine guns, a number of MK-19 automatic grenade launchers whose number is undisclosed and the M36E T1 thermal sighting system.
In addition, Athena also requested related spare parts, supporting equipment, training and technical support, as well as calibration services.
The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DCSA) which announced this potential sale stated that the proposed package would help the Greek Armed Forces protect its maritime interests and infrastructure on the southern side of NATO. It will also help enhance Greece's ability to address existing and future threats.
The USMC began banning the use of AAVs after a series of accidents that occurred in 2020 and killed nine personnel off the coast of southern California. An investigation at that time stated that the AAV fleet was old and not well maintained. Later USMC will still deploy AAV to face a critical response, even so the US decided to start selling its AAV assets, and one of them was then responded by Greece.
The USMC said that it would gradually retire the AAV until the 2027 fiscal year, whereby the USMC would gradually receive a replacement vehicle, namely the Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV) 8 × 8.
Prior to sale, USMC ensures that units released to other countries will go through a return-to-condition code alpha (RCCA) process, which includes disassembling the vehicle; inspection, repair, covering the hull of the vehicle; vehicle reassembly, including replacement of mandatory parts and non-serviceable parts; vehicle testing; and preparation for delivery to the buyer.
It was not explained how many AAV units the USMC wanted to sell. Citing sources from wikipedia.org, USMC currently operates at least 1,311 AAV units, meaning that the available stock is very large.
Considering that Greece only purchased 63 units, there is still a very large number of AAVs left for sale. If Indonesia still adheres to the procurement of used defense equipment, it is possible that USMC used AAVs will seriously be acquired.
For the record, the AAV (LVTP-7), which is currently operated by the Amphibious Landing Vehicle Battalion (Yonranratib) of the Marine Corps, is also used, namely from a grant from South Korea.
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