Posted on 01/06/2011 5:16:58 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
Pentagon Is Poised to Cancel Marine Landing Craft
By CHRISTOPHER DREW
It was supposed to be a tank that swims, a new way for the Marines to storm hostile beaches.
The vehicle was conceived to carry Marines ashore and move inland without pausing on the beach. It has faced problems in combining its land and sea technology. But as military budgets come under pressure, the 38-ton landing craft that turns into an assault vehicle seems destined to be the next bit of high-tech wizardry to bite the dust.
Pentagon and industry officials say the defense secretary, Robert M. Gates, is poised to cancel the long-delayed $14.4 billion program on Thursday, when he is expected to announce a new round of belt-tightening at the Pentagon. The hybrid vehicle, being built by General Dynamics, is the most expensive weapons system to be cut since Mr. Gates canceled or trimmed three dozen programs in April 2009.
Mr. Gates is also likely on Thursday to approve a two-year delay in the Marine Corps version of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft, the militarys largest program, and spell out how he plans to save up to $100 billion on the Pentagons operations.
The military is facing intensifying political and economic pressures to restrain its budget, and Mr. Gates has sought to contain the demands by ending troubled weapons systems and squeezing more efficiency out of the Pentagons bureaucracy to pay for other programs. But Congress will have the final say on many of the decisions, including the fate of the hybrid Marine vehicle, and it remains hard to tell how it will balance the fiscal demands with
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Just sayin.
The reason for launching amphibious ops farther offshore is not because of land based missiles or arty. It is because we need to be over the horizon to avoid most land-based radar detection. That's about 24 miles currently and we would prefer 40 miles.
Here's a look at the SSC:
http://www.ship2shoreconnector.com/
Also, there was no reliable way to predict cross currents and wave height in advance of the 24 mile travel time of the EFV.
Finally, having done a beach assault last year from an LCAC, I cannot imagine the rough ride you would get in a much smaller EFV.
I hope the SSC is faster and better able to handle rough water, the LCAC was a nightmare.
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