John in an e-mail message laments about the offer from General Dynamics to provide the Marine Corps with a simplified EFV. Remember this vehicle was ready to go and had been tested with Infantry Battalions, had been thru all climate testing and was shown to be shipboard compatible. High water speed would be stripped from the vehicle but the other bits would remain. It would be a bit faster than the AAV, it would have tremendous firepower gains (you just can't sneeze at that 30mm setup they developed) and it would have all the comms and networking we could imagine. Even better it would have already been in the fleet. I need real deal information. No guesses allowed. No conspiracy theories.
Why didn't we bite?
Spare me the talk about IEDs too. According to John the EFV had MRAP protection that rivals the ACV so that can't be it. Mobility? I'm a track guy and while everyone is screaming that wheels offers the same mobility despite what I'm hearing and the example of the MTVR I'm gonna need to see more before I kill off that bias.
Its almost inexplicable. A simplified EFV seems like a no brainer. General Dynamics doesn't talk about it. Marine Corps history ignores the issue and armor historians don't seem to know the controversy even exists.
So I ask again. Why didn't the Marine Corps go with a simplified EFV?
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