thedrifter
12-02-08, 07:41 AM
USMC Should Cancel EFV, Re-examine MV-22
By Bettina H. Chavanne
The U.S. Marine Corps should cancel the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) and re-examine its decision to replace CH-46E helicopters with tiltrotor MV-22 Ospreys, a Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) study says.
Analyst Dakota Wood recommends in a study this month that the armed service cancel its EFV in favor of an armored combat vehicle better suited for post-9/11 land warfare. The EFV substitute would have to possess “some modest ability to traverse water obstacles,” Wood writes, and be combined with an air-cushioned landing craft-type vehicle to “better address the evolving anti-armor and precision-guided weapons” deployed by foreign regimes.
The recommendations are designed to help shape the Marines in light of changing threats, making them a more streamlined force.
Besides the EFV, Wood’s evaluation of a changing operational and threat environment, increasing budgetary pressures and the potential implications of distributed operations also led him to advise the Corps to revisit its decision to fully replace its CH-46E Sea Knights with MV-22s. A mix of MV-22s and a new helicopter replacement for the Sea Knight “would provide greater options and increased flexibility at less cost,” he says.
Wood also suggests the service consider deploying a Marine Air-Ground Task Force aboard a “Littoral Operations Squadron,” which would consist of one LPD-17 amphibious transport dock ship and two or three Littoral Combat Ships. “This force mix would be well suited to conduct the types of operations implied by the strategic challenges and the merging operational concepts of the naval services,” he says.
The study also said the Marines should have an air branch better suited to flying missions from austere airfields, large-deck amphibious assault ships and nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. It should consist of a mixed fleet of F-35 Lightning II aircraft including both the planned short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing variant and the carrier variant, according to Wood. The Corps also should join the Navy in developing the Navy-Unmanned Combat Air System to extend the range and coverage of air operations for Marines ashore.
Photo: Ted Carlson
Ellie
By Bettina H. Chavanne
The U.S. Marine Corps should cancel the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) and re-examine its decision to replace CH-46E helicopters with tiltrotor MV-22 Ospreys, a Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) study says.
Analyst Dakota Wood recommends in a study this month that the armed service cancel its EFV in favor of an armored combat vehicle better suited for post-9/11 land warfare. The EFV substitute would have to possess “some modest ability to traverse water obstacles,” Wood writes, and be combined with an air-cushioned landing craft-type vehicle to “better address the evolving anti-armor and precision-guided weapons” deployed by foreign regimes.
The recommendations are designed to help shape the Marines in light of changing threats, making them a more streamlined force.
Besides the EFV, Wood’s evaluation of a changing operational and threat environment, increasing budgetary pressures and the potential implications of distributed operations also led him to advise the Corps to revisit its decision to fully replace its CH-46E Sea Knights with MV-22s. A mix of MV-22s and a new helicopter replacement for the Sea Knight “would provide greater options and increased flexibility at less cost,” he says.
Wood also suggests the service consider deploying a Marine Air-Ground Task Force aboard a “Littoral Operations Squadron,” which would consist of one LPD-17 amphibious transport dock ship and two or three Littoral Combat Ships. “This force mix would be well suited to conduct the types of operations implied by the strategic challenges and the merging operational concepts of the naval services,” he says.
The study also said the Marines should have an air branch better suited to flying missions from austere airfields, large-deck amphibious assault ships and nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. It should consist of a mixed fleet of F-35 Lightning II aircraft including both the planned short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing variant and the carrier variant, according to Wood. The Corps also should join the Navy in developing the Navy-Unmanned Combat Air System to extend the range and coverage of air operations for Marines ashore.
Photo: Ted Carlson
Ellie