Marine News.

Thanks for the heads up Lee.

OK guys, this is really deserving of a rant but I'm still punching walls so I'll try and keep it to a low roar...via Inside Defense.

Special-Purpose MAGTF To Have 500 Marines, Rely On MV-22, KC-130J
The Marine Corps' new special-purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force crisis-response team will be about one-sixth the size of a traditional MAGTF but will allow the service to place more units in places like Africa to provide the range and speed needed to respond to crises, a Marine Corps official said last week
Brig. Gen. Matthew Glavy, assistant deputy commandant for aviation, told Inside the Navy on March 20 that the special-purpose MAGTF would have about 500 Marines versus about 3,200 in a traditional MAGTF but would still be a "very capable" crisis response force.
"When you can't sortie the ships required to have an enduring presence, how do you get the same effects to the combatant commander?" he told ITN after giving a presentation at an amphibious operations symposium hosted by the Defense Strategies Institute. "The V-22 [Osprey tiltrotor aircraft] provides the depth and range, combined with the KC-130J air refueling capability, combine that with a company of Marines, and you're kind of onto something."

And...

USMC Looks To Existing Technologies For Amphibious Combat Vehicle
The Marine Corps is focusing on leveraging existing technologies to define requirements for the Amphibious Combat Vehicle through an ongoing feasibility study, according to a service official.
The study will help the service better understand the risks and best approach for developing an affordable, survivable, high water speed vehicle, John Burrow, ACV director, told Inside the NavyMarch 19 during an interview at Marine Corps Base Quantico, VA.
"This vehicle will be in the Marine Corps serving the nation for a long time, so we've got to get it right," he said.
The study, which just began, will last about six months, but Burrow does not see it significantly impacting the program's time line because of its nature. . . ."Some of the concept design work we're going to be exploring will help to mitigate, I think, the time line, number one. And number two, because we're leveraging some of the existing technology, then we can minimize some of the development time associated with that," he said.

First.  On the Special MAGTF.  I despise duplication of effort.  I don't like it when a new wheel is invented when a tried and true one will get the job done.

MEU's could handle those situations that this new MAGTF is being designed for.  Instead, we're about to stand up a new formation.  If an MEU isn't in range then what about Rangers, SEALs, MARSOC or hell even the 82nd?  If the issue is really AFRICOM and having a force that can rapidly deploy throughout that continent then why aren't we looking at a joint solution?  I just don't see this as a wise use of limited resources.

On the Amphibious Combat Vehicle...did I just read that it is again going to be delayed?  I am speechless.

Just a refresher.  This is what the Commandant said...

“There are two answers to that, one is as Commandant of the Marine Corps’s answer which is Before I leave leave office four years from now … we’ll have a program of record, we’ll have steel, there will be a vehicle and I’ll be able to drive it,” Amos said

and....

“I’m trying to pressurize industry, I’m trying to pressurize the acquisition folks, I want the word to get out. If we followed the standard acquisition timeline, which in some cases got us to where we are today, it’ll be 2024.”

and...

“Something probably that resembles the sense of urgency that we had for the MRAP but probably a little bit more scheduled, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Mark my words.  The US Army will have the GCV and the AMPV in service before a Marine drives the ACV.