Marines Attempt to Define Future Amid Budget Cuts

Fox News ^ | February 13, 2011 | AP

[Scanian]

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- A faster, high-tech seafaring tank for U.S. Marines has hit countless setbacks and cost overruns during the past two decades, and now it is one of the pricier items on the Defense Department's budget-cutting list.

Even the Marine Corps' top brass agrees the estimated $12 billion program has to go. But that doesn't mean the debate is over.

A group of Republican lawmakers is questioning the Marine Corps leadership's sudden change of heart over the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle. Generals have long said the amphibious tank under development had come to symbolize the force's very identity and represented the future of the Marine Corps, which has been relegated largely to landlocked wars over the past decade.

The legislators want Marine Corps leaders to explain the new position they took last month in backing Defense Secretary Robert Gates when he announced that the EFV should be cut.

Republicans fighting to save the EFV say they want to know why generals spent 20 years pushing for the amphibious war machine only to turn around over a span of months and say it has become too costly.

"If this program was going well three months ago, and according to all reports to Congress it was, and according to the U.S. Marine Corps it was, why all the sudden are we finding it's over budget and unsustainable? What did the Marine Corps miss?" asked California Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter, a retired Marine who sits on the House Armed Services Committee.

The tank's apparent demise also highlights a breakdown in congressional oversight of military programs, Hunter said. More than $3 billion was spent on the EFV since the 1990s, and Hunter said he wants to know why it took so long for the Defense Department and the Marine Corps to realize...

[wmileo]

Thanks for the informative response.

Your explanation is better than anything I was able to find from the actual article.

I also wanted to take time to defend Duncan Hunter. He is a cut above the pack when it comes to federally elected officials, especially those from the land of sunshine.

[wmileo]

"Do we provide our Marines with the proper tools to enhance their survival and success, or do we use that money to pay-off the Union Thugs like the UAW, NEA, SEIU, etc.? "

That would depend on who is going to prevail, Leftists or Patriots?

[Marine Special Ops Mom]

The son Duncan Jr. is still in the Marine Reserves.

[nascarnation]

I worked on the powertrain of that rig before I retired.
It’s like a formula race car, incredibly capable, but also incredibly complex and costly.

I’m no expert in combat vehicles, but it looked way over the top to me.

Then again they put the turbine engine in the Abrams instead of the diesel and made it work, even though it’s also expensive, and sucks fuel like crazy.