The Army sought 2,350 of the 12.7 mm (.50) caliber-armed light squad carrier variant, and at one point was expected to be the LAV's biggest buyer.

[8] As of 2023, the table of organization and equipment for a U.S. Marine Corps light-armored reconnaissance (LAR) battalion includes 46 LAV-25s, 12 LAV-ATs, 12 LAV-C2s, 18 LAV-Ls, 6 LAV-Ms, 6 LAV-Rs, and 4 LAV-MEWSS vehicles.

The ARV was initially planned to be a networked family of wheeled vehicles capable of performing various mission sets, with 500 to be procured.

[11] In April 2021, the Marines revealed they had shifted focus to new capabilities for performing reconnaissance rather than specific types of platforms, and that the LAV-25 replacement may not be a new armored vehicle.

[12] Nevertheless, proposals for Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle prototypes were due in May 2021; requirements were for a vehicle with a tethered unmanned aircraft system (UAS) and an open architecture approach allowing for integration of capabilities including battle management systems and communications suites, weighing less than 18.5 tons and being small enough to fit four on a Ship-to-Shore Connector.

The Marine Corps plans to make up to three awards for ARV prototypes for testing and evaluation, then choose up to two to continue into a competitive engineering and manufacturing development phase in 2024, after which a decision will be made as to whether production will be pursued.

[14] Textron and GDLS were awarded Other Transaction Authority (OTA) contracts in July 2021 for prototypes to be built and evaluated over the next two years.

[15] BAE Systems will also participate in a separate technical study to see if a variant of its Amphibious Combat Vehicle can meet ARV requirements.

[16] There are planned to be six ARV variants: command, control, communications and computers-unmanned aerial system (C4/UAS); organic precision fire-mounted; counter-UAS; 30 mm autocannon and ATGM; logistics; and recovery.

This level of high-hardness steel armor is intended only to offer protection against small arms rounds such as the common 7.62x39mm M1943 ball used by Kalashnikov rifles such as the AKM, to achieve the lowest possible weight and cost.

The LAV-A2 project involved developing and installing an internal and external ballistic protection upgrade package, developed by Armatec Survivability,[20] for the Light Armored Vehicles, an automatic fire suppression system for the interior of the vehicle and a Generation II suspension upgrade to support the added weight of the new armor.

The three-kit armor system provides the LAV with additional survivability against improvised explosive devices (IED) and direct-fire kinetic energy weapons.

The ITSS provides the gunner and commander with thermal images, an eye-safe laser range finder, a fire-control solution and far-target location target grid information.