Next tactical vehicle crisis? Replacing the MTVR.

via SeaPower Magazine

Similar comments were made by the program managers for the Corps tactical wheeled vehicles who followed Taylor at a National Defense Industrial Association forum.
“One of the things we all wrestle with is balancing sustainment of the current systems against what we think we’ll need in the future,” said Col. Timothy Bryant, director of logistics integration at the Capabilities Development Directorate.
Perhaps the hardest sustainment challenge faces Steve Pinter, program manager for medium and heavy tactical vehicles, the Corps’ family of tactical trucks. Pinter said his fleet has an average age of 24 years and there was “no program for replacement” of either of his classes of trucks.

Read the entire article, the USMC is expanding its numbers of Internally Transported Vehicles and is buying around 200 more as weapons carriers and 120mm prime movers.

But the MTVR is different.  That vehicle has been the backbone of the Marine Corps over the past 10 years and has served as a logistics/prime mover and troop carrier world wide.

The idea that we could be heading into a time where even this class is old and worn out just puts us further behind the eight ball.

The real issue is the F-35.  We can no longer ignore the damage that it is doing to our ground combat component.  Either it works and we buy it now or we say enough is enough and either push IT to the right or do the hard thing and cancel it outright (hard for those that have wasted so much treasure on it).  We are watching combat capability waste away waiting for the next "hotness".