Marines Rushing To Equip Amphibious Combat Vehicles With Anduril Pulsar-L Anti-Drone Jammers

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The U.S. Marine Corps is moving rapidly to close a critical gap in its armoured amphibious fleet. The Portfolio Acquisition Executive – Marine Corps published a Notice of Intent to Sole Source on 3 August 2026, confirming plans to negotiate directly with Anduril Industries for the supply of Pulsar-L counter-drone electronic warfare systems to be mounted on the Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV).

The urgency is rooted in a stark admission from Marine Corps Systems Command (MARCORSYSCOM): the ACV currently cannot execute any part of the counter-drone kill-chain. As stated in the sole-source justification, "the ACV platform lacks the ability to effectively execute any part of the kill-chain (detect, track, identify, or defeat) against increasingly prolific [small unmanned aerial system] threats." The Pulsar-L was identified as the only system capable of meeting the requirement without risk to the government's interests — Anduril is the original designer, developer, and sole producer of the platform, precluding competitive sourcing.

The USMC's choice of Anduril was also informed by existing Army precedent. The Army had already incorporated Pulsar-L packages into its own vehicle-mounted counter-drone contracts under a separate sole-source justification approved in March 2026. At the broader programme level, Anduril holds a 10-year, indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity contract worth up to $1 billion with U.S. Special Operations Command that includes Pulsar among its counter-drone hardware and software offerings.

The programme is proceeding quickly. Fifty Pulsar-L units are expected to be delivered within the first year of the contract, with integration onto ACV platforms scheduled to begin in the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2027 — a window running from October to late December 2026. Further production is required to support wider counter-drone efforts across the ACV fleet.

The Pulsar-L effort sits within a broader, longer-term ACV survivability roadmap. ACV Programme Manager Chris Melkonian told industry at the May 2026 Modern Day Marine conference that the Corps has developed a five-to-ten-year modernisation plan for the platform, encompassing laser protection, directed energy weapons, and mobile camouflage. Active protection systems to counter incoming anti-tank guided missiles are also in development. The Pulsar-L integration represents the first rapid fielding step within that roadmap — a soft-kill C-UAS layer addressing the most immediate and proliferating threat class today.

Technical Breakdown

Platform: Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV) The ACV is an 8×8 wheeled armoured vehicle manufactured by BAE Systems, derived from the Iveco SuperAV. It has a gross weight of approximately 35 tonnes (32 metric tons) and a payload capacity of up to 3,302 kg. The ACV-P personnel variant carries a crew of three and up to 13 combat-loaded Marines. Propelled by an Iveco Cursor 16 700 hp engine, it achieves speeds over 65 mph on paved roads and more than 6 knots in open water, with a land operational range of approximately 325 miles. The current fleet comprises four variants: ACV-P (personnel carrier), ACV-C (command and control), ACV-30 (30mm cannon-armed), and ACV-R (recovery). As of April 2026, the USMC held 150 ACV-P and 21 ACV-C vehicles in inventory.

C-UAS System: Anduril Pulsar-L

• Class: Soft-kill (SK) platform-integrated counter-UAS electronic warfare system
• Form factor: Sub-25 lb (under 11.4 kg) — approximately the size of a shoebox; MIL-STD-810H rated
• Architecture: Software-defined radio (SDR) with on-board GPU compute, machine learning algorithms, and AI-at-the-edge processing
• Sensor/effector package: Combined omni-directional sensor and jammer array; detects, tracks, identifies, and defeats RF-dependent Group 1 (up to 20 lb, up to 1,200 ft AGL) and Group 2 UAS
• Counter-positioning, navigation, and timing (C-PNT): Yes — provides counter-GPS/navigation capabilities
• Effective jamming range: Up to approximately 2 km against Group 1 targets
• Detection range: 2–5 km for RF-dependent drone threats
• Power draw: Under 4 kW, compatible with vehicle inverter support
• Environmental rating: IP65; operational from -30°C to +65°C
• Autonomy level: Autonomous threat detection with operator alert; integrates with Anduril's Lattice command-and-control layer for networked operations
• Deployment time: Approximately 2 minutes
• Configurations: The Pulsar-L is the expeditionary/lightweight variant in the broader Pulsar family, which includes Pulsar-V (vehicle), Pulsar-A (airborne), and fixed-site configurations. The ACV integration will include a control station interface, omnidirectional antenna array, and EW software tailored to the platform.
• Threat scope: Single drone or drone swarm; system is software-defined and designed to accept updates for emerging threat waveforms — with new detection/defeat techniques distributable across the deployed fleet in hours to days.

Industry Impact

Manufacturers: Anduril Industries secures another significant sole-source vehicle-mounted EW contract, reinforcing the Pulsar family's position as the USMC's preferred C-UAS baseline. BAE Systems, as the ACV's prime contractor, will need to work through the system integration process — the contract scope includes ACV-specific fitting, antenna array mounting, and a control station interface, creating integration work that feeds back into BAE's ACV production and sustainment ecosystem.

Operators: The USMC gains a credible soft-kill layer against the drone threat classes most immediately relevant to littoral and amphibious operations. With 50 units in the first delivery tranche, initial coverage will be concentrated, requiring prioritisation across the fleet before broader fielding. The Lattice integration pathway means networked, coordinated electronic effects across distributed ACV formations are a near-term operational option.

Regulators and Programme Offices: The use of an Urgent Statement of Need and sole-source justification reflects both the pace of the drone threat and the accelerated procurement pathways now being normalised for C-UAS. The Army's prior sole-source use of Pulsar-L was explicitly cited as precedent, suggesting a cross-service pattern that acquisition policy offices will need to account for.

Investors: The Marine Corps award adds to a growing multi-service Pulsar portfolio that already includes SOCOM (up to $1 billion, 10-year IDIQ) and a prior $250 million DoD counter-drone package. Cross-service adoption from SOCOM through the Army and now the Marine Corps signals durable, recurring demand for the Pulsar family beyond any single programme of record.

Integrators: The ACV-specific integration requirement — control station interface, omnidirectional antenna array, marinised hardware, and EW software — opens near-term systems engineering and integration work. The broader ACV modernisation roadmap, including future directed energy and active protection systems, signals a multi-year integration pipeline for the platform's survivability stack.