thedrifter
11-21-08, 08:11 AM
Marines' Swimming Tank: Adapt or Die
By David Axe November 20, 2008 | 5:06:00 PM
It's no secret that the incoming Obama administration will be taking a hard look at big-ticket weapons programs, with the goal of cutting back under-performing or less-relevant programs. The Marine Corps' Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle is one system likely to face some serious scrutiny.
Twenty years in development, the $23-million-a-pop EFV -- basically a swimming version of the Army's Bradley fighting vehicle -- underwent a major redesign a couple years back. The idea was to address mechanical problems, the perceived need to operate for long periods on dry land, and the rising threat of roadside bombs. Still, the EFV is an "embarrassment" owing to its poor reliability and high cost, according to one Congressman.
Now one critic is calling for the Marine Corps to redesign the EFV one more time -- or face the music and kill off the waterborne fighting vehicle, for good. Dr. Craig Hooper, a lecturer at the Naval Postgraduate School, says the EFV "in its current guise, is a fragile, forcible entry weapon of little other use."
A posterchild for next-war-itis, it is neither optimized for land warfare nor the contested maritime economic zones and militarily useful atolls expected to loom large in future Marine Corps operations.
A "more seaworthy" EFV, Hooper writes in the current issue of Proceedings, should be paired with "emerging logistical platforms" such as Navy catamarans, "equipped to deploy, recover and service a small swarm of EFVs ... as low-budget littoral warfighters."
That would jibe with the Navy's and Marines' emerging strategy emphasizing "distributed" operations in near-shore waters, using self-sufficient LPD-17 landing ships, speedy V-22 tiltrotors and Littoral Combat Ships carrying companies of Marines in a yet-to-be-designed transport module. A "back-to-the-sea" EFV could be the armored punch for small groups of Marines waging long-distance warfare in some of the world's most difficult environments.
{Photo: USMC]
Ellie
By David Axe November 20, 2008 | 5:06:00 PM
It's no secret that the incoming Obama administration will be taking a hard look at big-ticket weapons programs, with the goal of cutting back under-performing or less-relevant programs. The Marine Corps' Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle is one system likely to face some serious scrutiny.
Twenty years in development, the $23-million-a-pop EFV -- basically a swimming version of the Army's Bradley fighting vehicle -- underwent a major redesign a couple years back. The idea was to address mechanical problems, the perceived need to operate for long periods on dry land, and the rising threat of roadside bombs. Still, the EFV is an "embarrassment" owing to its poor reliability and high cost, according to one Congressman.
Now one critic is calling for the Marine Corps to redesign the EFV one more time -- or face the music and kill off the waterborne fighting vehicle, for good. Dr. Craig Hooper, a lecturer at the Naval Postgraduate School, says the EFV "in its current guise, is a fragile, forcible entry weapon of little other use."
A posterchild for next-war-itis, it is neither optimized for land warfare nor the contested maritime economic zones and militarily useful atolls expected to loom large in future Marine Corps operations.
A "more seaworthy" EFV, Hooper writes in the current issue of Proceedings, should be paired with "emerging logistical platforms" such as Navy catamarans, "equipped to deploy, recover and service a small swarm of EFVs ... as low-budget littoral warfighters."
That would jibe with the Navy's and Marines' emerging strategy emphasizing "distributed" operations in near-shore waters, using self-sufficient LPD-17 landing ships, speedy V-22 tiltrotors and Littoral Combat Ships carrying companies of Marines in a yet-to-be-designed transport module. A "back-to-the-sea" EFV could be the armored punch for small groups of Marines waging long-distance warfare in some of the world's most difficult environments.
{Photo: USMC]
Ellie