By Marina Malenic
TUCSON, Ariz.–The new Marine Corps commandant’s view of his service’s future will help shape the Defense Department’s decision on whether to request funds for continued development of a new amphibious vehicle, the military’s top officer said last week, suggesting that Pentagon leaders have not yet reached a conclusion about the program’s fate.
The developmental Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) is planned as a replacement for the Marine Corps’ 40-year-old Amphibious Assault Vehicles.
“Each service has a view of its future, and I think that’s really important,” said Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Part and parcel of where we go with EFV…is, what’s the vision of the future with respect to the Marine Corps and how does it fit into the joint force?”
Mullen spoke during a press conference in Tucson following the annual luncheon meeting of Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities Inc., a local business-development group.
Gen. James Amos is on track to be sworn in as the Marine Corps’ next commandant later this month, following the Senate’s Sept. 30 vote to confirm him as Gen. James Conway’s replacement.
Earlier this year, Defense Secretary Robert Gates questioned the need for a new amphibious assault vehicle. But Mullen said Amos’ position is to be taken into account as the Pentagon formulates its Fiscal 2012 budget request for the program.
“Gen. Amos’ view of his service’s future is going to be very important as we make this transition,” Mullen said. “He’ll have a very strong view of how that all should look.”
Given rumors of an imminent decision on the future of the EFV, Mullin’s comments suggest that the process could be delayed until Amos takes over as commandant.
Mullen also said last week that he has “made it clear” in meetings with service chiefs that they “are not going to go at each others throats” over the department’s budget.
“I am not going to permit that,” he said. “There’s an enormous amount of budget pressure right now, and we’re going to have to take out our analytical skills, which we’ve by and large put away over the last decade because we didn’t have to make hard decisions as the budget was growing.”
He added that the department will have to “make hard decisions and look to what’s best for the military” as a whole.
Conway has been a strong proponent of the EFV. Amos, before his Sept. 21 Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing, also expressed support for the program. “In an era of increasing challenges to access, the capabilities of a vehicle like the EFV afford our amphibious ships the maneuver space and stand-off distance to better counter anti- access weapons,” Amos told the panel in writing.
Meanwhile, the EFV will enter reliability-growth testing in the coming weeks that will also factor into whether the program will continue. Contractor General Dynamics [GD] late last month was expected to turn over to the Defense Department the sixth of seven redesigned prototypes. These efforts are in preparation for the reliability-growth tests expected to begin late this month or early next (Defense Daily, Sept. 28).
The Senate Appropriations Committee called last month for cutting the Pentagon’s FY ’11 EFV request and preparing for a possible program cancellation. While the Marine Corps requested $242.8 million for the EFV in FY ’11, the SAC called for granting just $38.8 million to carry the program through reliability-growth testing and appropriating $183.5 million for terminating the program if the vehicles fare poorly in that testing.
However, the other three congressional defense committees have called for fully funding the FY ’11 request.