Top Ten Issues facing the Marine Corps..

My top ten...

1.  The upcoming reduction in force.  How many Marines will we have in our Corps in the next 4 years?  Final end strength is going to be a big deal that few are talking about now.  Everyone will be talking about it soon.
2.  EFV.  Does it live or die?  If its axed is someone ready with a replacement or will we have to start all over?  One thing I've noticed is that no bid contracts are awarded for updates.  This means that if BAE is johnny on the spot, a major revamping of the AAV can win rapid approval and we'll still maintain our amphibious capability with a better vehicle.
3.  CH-53K.  Will we ever get that program really moving?  Its beyond needed and in certain scenarios will be more capable than the MV-22.
4.  MV-22.  We've walked, now its time to run.  Either this airplane is ready to go or we should stop production and move on to the CH-53K.
5.  Marine Personnel Carrier.  Kill this idea now.  We're playing with Corps money...time to cut our losses...and our dreaming.
6.  IAR pipedream.  Come on.  Do we really need a modern day BAR?
7.  Aviation sucking sound.  Our procurement policies have become lop sided.  Aviation is costing too much and absorbing too large a slice of the Marine Corps budget.  Sometimes I think new build CH-46's along with the new built AH-1Zs/UH-1Ys would have been a better way to go.
8.  Naval Shipping.  The Navy is playing hardball with the Corps.  We need our boatspaces back.
9.  Tanks.  They aren't in the fight and we need to decide what role they're going to play in a modern Marine Corps.  Either they're part of the fight (everywhere---heck we used them in Vietnam) or we get rid of them.
10.  General Officer Corps.  Its going to happen and the Marine Corps should lead the way.  As long as we're reducing the size of the Marines, we should slice more than a few General spots.  Let the Navy place Admirals in those positions but this Purple non-sense of General/Admirals everywhere has got to come to an end.