The latest news on the AAV replacement is not encouraging. It appears that the decision on the list of requirements for this vehicle will again be delayed. Additionally, and I'm admittedly reading between the lines, but it seems that even the upgrade for the AAV is in jeopardy. Make no mistake about it. The F-35 has destroyed the Marine Corps budget to such a degree that Marines will be riding into combat in a 50 year old vehicle with inadequate armor, firepower, communication and imaging gear. The F-35 for the USMC has turned into a threat to the institutions very existence. Read the entire article from Defense News but a few tidbits...
“I’m only going to get one bite at this apple — I don’t want to mess this up,” Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Jim Amos told reporters in June in a direct nod to the limited patience that Congress and Pentagon budget makers now have for programs that eat up too much time and money. (This is laughable considering the mess that is the F-35 program.)Its really simple though.
Under current, pre-sequester plans, the Marines say they want the ACV to enter service between fiscal 2020 and 2022, with the Corps acquiring 573 of the amtracs. Since trade studies are ongoing, no cost estimates are available either from the Corps or industry, sources contacted for this story said.
The Marine Corps did not respond to requests for comment.
The caution that the Corps’ leadership is practicing with this program can be seen not only in the extended trade studies but also in the fact that the request for proposal widely expected to be released last fall doesn't appear to be coming any time soon, given that the latest trade study still has months to go.
The Marine Corps has prioritized an airplane over providing armored protection to its ground forces.
I think the USMC is going slow because they don't want to blow 3 BILLION more dollars on and idiotic idea (wow, lets make and IFV go 30 knots) like the EFV.
ReplyDeletethe Marine Corps is going slow because WE CAN'T AFFORD ANY FUCKING THING ELSE EXCEPT THE F-35 right now.
Deleteeven the Army is being forced to delay procurement because ONE FUCKING AIRPLANE is killing the budget.
heard anything about the GCV, AMPV projects? nope, nada. the entire defense establishment is getting bent over the table by Lockheed Martin and that one FUCKED UP BEYOND BELIEF program.
airpower ZEALOTS might SQUEAL with glee but people with common sense and the EYES TO SEE are pissed beyond belief. leadership is bought and paid for and the entire headshed needs to be replaced.
The USMC really needs a vehicle that can swim faster, taking an hour to cover 10Kilometers is really too long to make amphibious deployment feasible. The AAV is also way to slow on land. Actually solomon I believe the Patria AWV is part of the GCV program, it looks good but I would really expect that active-defense-systems would be a requirement for a new system from the perspective of any general with his head screwed on straight.
ReplyDeleteThere will be no more dreams of routinely 'swimming' any APC to shore - unless it is a peaceful HA/DR mission - assuming no 'asymmetric zealots' plinking at the helping forces.
DeleteNo ARG will ever again stay as close inshore as the previous and current policy suggests 'on paper'.
Either you carry APCs towards a 'hot' beach from well OTH - or you don't do amphibious landing.
There is a sound reason why no such landings have happened since Inchon - it has been the absence of capability to deliver all you need in one sudden solid punch.
AAV's speed on land is just a few MPH lower than MBT, nothing that a massaged later version of the same engine could not fix.
Floating APCs for fording rivers, ponds, lakes - sure.
Amphibious assault landing with well-armored and armed APC on their own bottom - only in simulations at the tail-end of an era in which you just could not really dream of doing this work because there has been no technically viable nor tactically plausible way to execute against even just a lower-middle-power adversary.
That is why the current USMC-leadership's focus on reassertion of amphibious capabilities is so important. State-of-the-art EFV showed the technical and tactical limits of hoping to plane to work. Laws of physics and budgetary constraints leave little uncertainty how to successfully reemphasize what makes Marines Marines - coming by ship to work on land.