via DefenseTech (March 2011)...
Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos today shed some much anticipated light on when the Corps could see a replacement for the cancelled Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, telling lawmakers he expects to drive its replacement by the end of his tenure as commandant.Some might forget. Some might forgive. I don't. The same LACK of urgency that doomed the EFV has reared its ugly head in both the Amphibious Combat Vehicle program AND the Marine Personnel Carrier contest.
“There are two answers to that, one is as Commandant of the Marine Corps’s answer which is Before I leave leave office four years from now … we’ll have a program of record, we’ll have steel, there will be a vehicle and I’ll be able to drive it,” Amos said responding to lawmakers questions during a House Armed Services Committee hearing. “I’m trying to pressurize industry, I’m trying to pressurize the acquisition folks, I want the word to get out. If we followed the standard acquisition timeline, which in some cases got us to where we are today, it’ll be 2024.”
To avoid such a fate, the general said the Department of the Navy will be using a model similar to the one it used to quickly buy and field thousands of MRAPs during the height of the Iraq war.
“Something probably that resembles the sense of urgency that we had for the MRAP but probably a little bit more scheduled, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
Now that’s not saying that Amos will necessarily be driving the production model EFV replacement, dubbed the Amphibious Combat Vehicle, but it will will be some sort of early version ACV.
Now to add to the misery, we have this speculation from National Defense Magazine.
Mike Blades, senior industry analyst with the firm, said of three major new ground combat vehicle programs — the Army’s new Ground Combat Vehicle and Armored Multipurpose Vehicle and the Marine Corps’ Amphibious Combat Vehicle — one will not survive.The budget wars are here and the Marine Corps needs to start playing for keeps. A couple of suggestions. Cancel participation in the JLTV contest immediately. Accelerate the MPC and ACV programs. Cancel the AAV upgrade to prevent an interim vehicle from becoming a permanent vehicle. Push IOC for the MPC/ACV to 2020 instead of 2030.
That may pit the Army against the Marine Corps in the budget battles.
"There are three new starts that are going to be happening, and I would eventually guess that at least one of them doesn't happen,” he said. “And I would also guess that one of the two that does happen is going to be based on something that already exists.”
Industry will gladly cooperate. If a company isn't able to meet the timetable then they've just done a Darwin act on themselves...it is survival of the fittest after all.