Amos emphasizes need for ACV?

via Defense Daily.

Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos stressed Thursday the unavoidable need his service has for the Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV), indicating he would shield it from budget cuts during fiscal belt-tightening in the Pentagon.
Amos and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert discussed how their services would fare if the $500 billion in longterm sequestration cuts, which started in March, continue as scheduled for a decade. Addressing the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank in Washington, Greenert expressed a desire to have more control over the across-the-board budget cuts as well as concern about their impact on the nuclear industrial base. Amos, sitting alongside Greenert, emphasized the need he sees for two programs: the F-35B variant of Lockheed Martin’s [LMT] Joint Strike Fighter and, in particular, the ACV.
The ACV planning effort is intended to replace the long-troubled and now-defunct program to develop an Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle. The Marine Corps has budgeted research and development monies in its five-year budget for the ACV, conducted an Analysis of Alternatives for it, and may release a request for proposals to industry around the beginning of next year (Defense Daily, May 30). The amphibious troop transporter would replace the service’s aging Amphibious Assault Vehicles (AAVs).
Facing sequestration cuts, Amos said his task is to “prioritize” the “top programs,” which are the ACV and F-35.
“And I’ve been very strident about that,” he said. The AAV, he noted, is more than 40 years old, and the ACV would come online when the older amphibious vehicle has been around for more than 50 years.
“So it has to be replaced,” he said. “So that’s a sense of, you know, I don’t have choice.” But he said he does “have a choice in some of the other vehicles, and some of the other things.”
“And in this case I’m willing to make hard calls and say, ‘OK we’re not going to get that. We’ll live with what we have,’” Amos said.
The only other weapons program he said the Marine Corps “absolutely” needs is the F-35B, he said. Equipment coming out of Afghanistan will be refurbished, he said, calling that setup “good enough.”
Greenert said sequestration wouldn’t negatively impact “almost all” of the ships under contract or delivered that he highlighted at the Thursday event--a grouping of vessels that includes the Littoral Combat Ship and Joint High Speed Vessel. Those programs are somewhat shielded by sequestration, he said, because the Navy would lose money trying to change the contracts with industry for them.
Greenert lamented that sequestration does not give the Navy control over the cuts, because under law the funding reductions they are designed to take a set percentage off of budget accounts. If the Navy had more control it could prioritize, he said.
“You have to prioritize, and my concern (is with) the industrial base,” he said. “When you whittle down aircraft and ship and other things, and what point do you undo the industrial base?”
He said he worries about the nuclear industrial base in particular, noting all the smaller--and thus vulnerable--firms within it that are the Pentagon’s only source of “discrete and very important” components.

Some will see this as good news.

I see it as another lie and another waffle.  Why?  Because the only reason why he kept delaying the request for proposals on the ACV (3 times he sent the numbers back to the program office) is because he was building in breathing space for the precious F-35..

Second.  He acknowledges that the AAV is soon to be over 50 years old but he doesn't seek to put into production a vehicle that can be ready now.  Its simple.  If Lockheed can't put the vehicle into production in year then BAE gets the contract and vice versa.  I don't think either company would have a problem.  It might be difficult but it could be doable (note, our first few vehicles might come from overseas plants but we did that with the Harrier so many years ago).

Last, his embracing of the ACV in a public setting is just a tip of the iceberg of trouble in Marine Land.  The Devil Dogs are restless, and you don't want to be around a bunch of pissed off Marines (its for many reasons to include the short shift being given the GCE).

The Marine Corps has a habit of ignoring (historically) its failed leadership.  Pace was the first Marine Chairman of the Joint Chiefs but you barely hear his name mentioned.  The same will happen with Amos once he leaves.  This will be considered a dark time in Marine history.  One we would all rather forget.