The Marine Corps is still looking at buying 5,500 Joint Light Tactical Vehicles even though sequestration cuts are driving the service to lower its expected force structure, a program official said yesterday at the Association of the United States Army annual meeting and exposition.
Lt. Col. Michael Burks, the Marine Corps’ deputy to the JLTV Joint Program Office, said during a press briefing that despite the Marine Corps changing its expected force structure from about 182,100 Marine to 174,000 due to budget cuts, “that hasn’t changed the numbers of JLTVs” the service hopes to buy.
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| Oshkosh Defense is one of three competitors for the JLTV contract, expected to be awarded in July 2015. Photo courtesy of Oshkosh Defense. |
“5,500 JLTVs is good enough to meet deployed commanders’ critical mission needs in the Marine Corps’ most dangerous combat mission profiles,” Burks said.
He said quite a bit of analysis had gone into reaching the 5,500 figure based on the 182,100 figure, and decreasing the size of the Marine Corps by only 8,000 wouldn’t have too significant an impact on major acquisition programs.
Burks wouldn’t speculate on how the new 174,000 figure would affect other ground vehicle acquisition and divestiture numbers. But Kevin Fahey, Program Executive Officer for the Army’s Combat Support and Combat Service Support, added that discussions so far have looked more at divesting a higher number of Humvees rather than buying fewer JLTVs to accommodate a smaller Marine Corps.
Burks also addressed comments that Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. James Amos had made about the Amphibious Combat Vehicle being the top ground priority, with the service being willing to back out of JLTV if sequestration makes it impossible to pursue both in the coming years.
“We are in,” Burks said. “The Marine Corps’ acquisition of JLTV and ACV do not overlap. So I reinforce that this is the right time for JLTV for the Marine Corps. It would be disingenuous of me to say that sequestration will not have any impact on Marine Corps’ acquisition of JLTV. That said, I also expect that the Marine Corps will pursue its acquisition objective of 5,500 JLTVs in partnership with the Army.”