 On 11 July 2014, General Dynamics was awarded a contract extension to continue work on determining the best option for developing an affordable, survivable, and high water speed ACV platform.The effort includes analyzing the flexibility and modularity of requirements, concept refinement, and experimentation planning to help the Marine Corps understand risks and determine the best approach for ACV development.Amphibious Combat Vehicle developments are incorporated into the Marine Corps' Expeditionary Force 21 future amphibious assault strategy, which rely on launching 65–100 miles from shore in small landing teams to exploit gaps in enemy defenses, rather than previous methods of deploying a large contingent across a beach in a major assault.