By Emelie Rutherford
The Marine Corps’ outgoing commandant questioned yesterday if the service will stick to its planned buy of the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV), a weapons system he acknowledge remains under close scrutiny within the Pentagon.
Commandant Gen. James Conway, an outspoken EFV defender, said he does not “sense” Pentagon officials will gut the developmental vehicle program, which is just now starting critical reliability testing (Defense Daily, Aug. 12).
“I hope not, because it is incredibly important to us,” Conway said at his last planned Pentagon press conference.
Still, he acknowledged the Marine Corps may not have the money to buy all 573 planned tracked amphibious vehicles, which are intended to carry Marines to land from ships 25 miles off shore.
“We are looking at affordability of the program in the out-years,” he said. “If you believe there will be cuts to the defense budget, we have to ask ourselves, you know, are 573 affordable?”
The Marine Corps already in 2006 reduced the number of planned EFVs from 1,013 down to 573 vehicles.
Contractor General Dynamics [GD] currently is working on a $767 million contract it received in 2008 to build seven EFV prototypes and modify existing vehicles that missed reliability goals during a 2006 operational assessment. The Marine Corps is conducting reliability tests on the new EFVs, and currently plans for the vehicles to start low-rate-initial production in fiscal year 2013.
“It has been a beleaguered program I think it’s probably fair to say, but at this point I think everybody’s anxious to see how it performs,” Conway said. “These new, more- reliable vehicles we think are going to perform much better.”
The outgoing commandant, who is expected to retire this fall, continued to insist the Marine Corps needs the amphibious vehicles.
“There’s certainly a need for that kind of capability in the out-years as we get back to the sea (and) ships,” he said.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates in May called the EFV effort a prime example of a future plan that should be adjusted as “the strategic environment evolves.” He ordered a review of the Marine Corps’ force structure this month, questioning whether the United States would launch any more large-scale amphibious landings on foreign shores and how much amphibious capability is needed. Still, Gates spoke in favor of bringing the Marine Corps back to its expeditionary role.
Conway insisted yesterday the Marine Corps is not clinging to the EFV in the way Air Force officials resisted the shutdown of production of Lockheed Martin [LMT] F-22 fighter jet.
“It is not the platform, it’s the capability,” he said about the EFV. “The problem is it’s the only thing out there that gives us that capability. When the (defense) secretary made the determination to trim away the F-22, there were another number of U.S. Air Force aircraft that could perform that function….This (EFV) the only capability that exists out there to get us from over the horizon.”
“So it’s not necessarily the EFV made by General Dynamics that goes 25 knots; it’s the capability that we need to be wed to,” Conway added. “It’s my belief that if that program were cancelled outright, we would still be looking then to come up with that capability in some other context, because it is essential to the way we do business.”
Conway also said the V-22 Osprey, a once-troubled helicopter-airplane hybrid built by a Bell Helicopter Textron [TXT]-Boeing [BA] team, has readiness rates in Afghanistan “about what we would expect them to be for the aircraft based upon the fact we tossed it immediately into combat.”
The V-22’s low readiness rates in Iraq was a concern on Capitol Hill.
“We thought we had learned all we needed to know about harsh environments in Iraq, but quite frankly, the environment in Afghanistan is a little different,” Conway said yesterday. “So we’ve got other parts now that are causing us issues with regard to readiness availability. But those parts having identified now, (and) having been identified and having been put into the system, we’re seeing a slow but steady increase in availability. As we apply those parts, our mechanics are getting simply better and faster, and they can find shortcuts that are still I think applying proper safety procedures.”
The V-22 is “doing everything that we want it to do and more” he said. As the Marine Corps’ new medium-lift helicopter, he said, it has been shot at and has been used for insertions behind the enemy, resupply missions, and equipment and personnel transfers.