More indecision on the AAV.

Thanks Jonathan for the article.

via Inside Defense.

The Marine Corps is considering a limited reset approach for its legacy Assault Amphibious Vehicle personnel variant to gather as much information as possible about amphibious vehicle options for senior leadership going forward, a Marine Corps spokesman told Inside the Navy last week.
Limited reset comprises replacement, recapitalization and repair. Replacement includes buying new parts and replacing obsolete or worn out parts that are critical to extending the vehicle's life cycle. Recapitalization will extend the equipment's "useful life" by returning it to a near zero-mile/zero-hour condition based on the original performance specifications from the last upgrade effort in 2007. Repair is an effort that will overhaul the vehicle's condition to Marine Corps standards, according to a July 5 request for information posted on Federal Business Opportunities.
The AAV is the Marine Corps' self-deploying, fully amphibious combat vehicle that supports joint forces and the Marine Air-Ground Task Force. It was originally fielded in 1971 and the last major rebuild effort was completed in 2007. The end-of-life for the platform has been extended until 2030, the notice continues.
The Marine Corps "is developing an acquisition strategy for a survivability upgrade on roughly 40 percent of the vehicles in service; however, this effort does not address long term sustaining maintenance effort," the RFI reads.
The program office is taking a holistic approach to what the future is going to bring for amphibious vehicles and this effort is a continuation of the service's research, service spokesman Manny Pacheco said July 11.
According to the RFI, the service is conducting market research to assess available sources to perform a limited reset for 1,064 vehicles from fiscal year 2016 through 2030. This may include a public/private approach, a purely public approach or a purely private approach.
"A limited reset approach is not intended to increase the capability of the legacy platform; however, it is intended to enhance reliability due to the focused attention on sustaining maintenance," the RFI reads. "Specific maintenance actions taken/executed on an individual AAV during a limited reset may be dependent on the condition of the asset when it is introduced into the process."
The government is seeking responses based on proven historical implementation and assumptions relative to the AAV platform to ensure a "comparative analysis on alternatives," RFI continues.
The Marine Corps lists three scenarios on which companies should base their responses. The first is an inspect and repair only as necessary approach. The second is an open approach based on the facility' s best practices and lessons learned. Responses should provide scenarios that fit the facility's capability. The final scenario incorporates all aspects of the second scenario with performing an AAV force protection upgrade.
The AAV force protection upgrade will better protect the AAV fleet against the improvised explosive device threat. The service released an RFI in May for force protection improvements and intends on releasing a request for proposals during the fourth quarter fiscal year 2013.
The Marine Corps requests responses by Aug. 8 for the limited reset approach RFI.
The service will have to figure out a path forward for the AAV program. The Marine Corps must decide if it will continue to have AAVs when the new Amphibious Combat Vehicle is fielded. Since the Marine Personnel Carrier has been taken out of the budget, the service has not decided on whether or not it will keep AAVs while ACVs are fielded to provide lift for infantry battalions, Col. Keith Moore, then-advanced amphibious assault program manager, told Inside the Navy during a June 26 interview.
"What we're certainly planning for within AAV is to provide at least the space for senior decision makers . . . to let them know we've got plans to allow you to make up that delta in AAVs until you can either decide to buy MPC or decide whether you're going to lift those infantry battalions in some other way," he stated.

Long story short.

They don't have a fucking clue.  They're playing for time and sticking to the F-35 at the expense of everything else.  One airplane has practically bankrupted the Marine Corps.  If you have a plan and information changes then you change that plan.  The F-35 was touted as an inexpensive replacement for the Harrier that wouldn't break the bank and would provide the Marines with its airplane of the future.  The F-35 is not affordable.  Its late.  Its killed off other much needed programs.  Its time to shoot that plane in the face, take it down to the river and hold it underwater till it stops kicking and time to chop it up and feed it to the hogs.

Its obvious to anyone paying attention that at this time, in this budget environment, the Marine Corps cannot afford the F-35.

Maybe in 5 or 10 years but not now.  We have the buffers in place in the form of the F/A-18 Super Hornets that the Navy is buying and the Harriers we bought from the Brits.  All we need is the courage to admit that we were wrong and to act on the information that we have sitting in front of us...and yeah.  It takes courage to realize that long held beliefs (funny talking beliefs when talking about weapon systems) were in error and a change must take place, but moral courage is something that Marines pride themselves on having---just as much as physical courage.  Its time for the USMC leadership to display that moral courage.  If they don't then it was just a bumper sticker slogan sold to the troops.