Marine Corps to release vehicle RFIWith the cancellation of the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) program on 6 January 2011, the United States Marine Corps (USMC) is preparing to release four separate requests for industry assistance in crafting a revised ground mobility strategy.
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Brigadier General Daniel O’Donohue, director of the USMC Capabilities Development Directorate, outlined aspects of the current plan in a 7 February panel presentation to the 2011 Tactical Wheeled Vehicles Conference, in Monterey, California.
'We’re in a little bit of flux,' he admitted pointing to both 'the recent termination of the EFV' as well as 'a huge effort for the Marine Corps to shape itself in a post OEF environment as an expeditionary force in readiness.'
'The [Marine Corps] Commandant will be giving a speech on 8 February where I think he will lay out the Force Structure Review Group and from that will follow an equipping strategy, through some studies that go through the spring, to inform either the POM [Program Objective Memorandum] ’13 ‘end game’ or POM ’14,' he said.
O’Donohue emphasized that it was 'for affordability reasons' that the service lost the planned 573 EFVs, adding, 'but the mission is still a priority. In fact, importantly, when the EFV was terminated, we kept the money.'
He went on to outline a current service tracked and wheeled vehicle strategy that already contains some elements of what he dubbed 'risk.'
'If we look at an MCO – Major Combat Operation – requirement we are looking for a 20 battalion lift,' he explained.
'We currently have 27 active battalions and another nine [in] reserves. So you can see that there is already risk in terms of their mobility. Within that lift for 20 battalions, one third [eight] are by air and the remaining 12 battalions are by ground. Eight of those will be by the replacement for the EFV – the next AV [Amphibious Vehicle] and then we have the MPC [Marine Personnel Carrier], which will be an eight-wheeled vehicle that will carry about nine troops and three crew. That would round out our ground combat mobility.'
The outline was accompanied by fleet projection charts that showed a potential fleet of 579 MPCs with IOC of FY22 as well as the current fleet of 694 aging Amphibious Assault Vehicles (AAVs) decreased to 392 platforms and then upgraded as ‘a bridge’ to a next generation amphibious platform.
'So clearly an area of risk for us will be at ‘the high end’ – amphibious assault and the use of a vehicle in terrain and circumstances that are semi-permissive where you can’t use other vehicles,' O’Donohue added.
'The other area of risk is the HMMWV replacement. We have got the JLTV – and we are obviously very interested in the technology demonstrations that are ongoing.
'In conjunction with that we are doing the HMMWV recap. And the idea is that if we don’t make the decisions right today, then tomorrow we will have today’s force. We need to modernize as we go. We need to minimize the reset. And we’ve got to be smart about how we’re doing it.'
As part of Marine Corps investigations of its future fleet, O’Donohue pointed to a planned 11 February 2011 release of four “Requests for Information” covering: HMMWV Survivability; AAV Service Life Extension Program; Marine Personnel Carrier; and Amphibious Vehicle.