By Emelie Rutherford
The Marine Corps’ top officer said if a new batch of Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) prototypes don’t meet five “knowledge points” during upcoming testing the service will “kill the program and look for alternatives.”
General Dynamics [GD] in the coming months is expected to officially turn over to the Marine Corps the seven modified EFV prototypes, which have improvements found to be needed during reliability testing on earlier versions of the long-delayed amphibious vehicle.
Commandant Gen. James Conway confirmed to House Appropriations Defense subcommittee (HAC-D) Chairman Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) that the EFV effort is, as Dicks said, approaching “a moment of truth where you decide whether you go forward or not.”
“There are five knowledge points (KPs) that will determine that for us…over the next 18 months or so,” Conway told the HAC-D March 11. “And if it does not pass those knowledge points successfully, then we don’t have the vehicle that we need. If it does…then we would again argue for full procurement. “
The long-troubled EFV effort, which suffered significant cost and technical problems earlier this decade, was restructured and successfully emerged in 2008 from a Critical Design Review that determined the new vehicle design has favorable reliability estimates. As part of a second System Design and Development effort, formalized in a $766.8 million contract awarded in mid-2008, General Dynamics has built the seven redesigned prototypes and modified existing, faulty test vehicles. The Marine Corps is slated to receive the seven new prototypes, and take over testing on them, in the “spring through summer this year,” Conway said at the budget hearing.
“It’s our belief based on some computer testing and some encouragement that (the EFV is) going to fare pretty well,” Conway said. “The agreement that we have with the Secretary of Defense (Robert Gates) and with this committee is that we will do the necessary field testing, put them against the KPs that are well established. And, if successful, we will ask for a full level of procurement. If not, the Marine Corps will kill the program and look for alternatives.”
Though Pentagon officials considered ending the EFV during the recently completed 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), they opted to keep the Marine Corps’ coveted program with the understanding that it would not proceed to production without passing thorough testing. President Barack Obama’s fiscal year 2011 budget request calls for delaying the EFV effort by a year, by having its procurement funding start in FY ’12.
Rep. James Moran (D-Va.), the third-ranking Democrat on the HAC-D, during the hearing highlighted the EFV program’s past cost growth and reduction in planned vehicle numbers.
Conway, who fought hard to keep the EFV alive in the recent QDR and FY ’11 budget deliberations, insisted the tracked amphibious troop transporter is “absolutely essential to our ability to do what the nation asks us to do, and that is to ensure access in an anti-access environment.”
The vehicle is intended to quickly carry combat-ready Marines to land from ships 25 miles off shore.
Lawmakers have voiced concerns in recent years about the EFV not having a V-shaped hull, like the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle (MRAP) has, to deflect the blasts of roadside explosives.
In response, the Marine Corps outfitted the amphibious vehicle with additional armor, including a removable add-on applique, without adopting the V-hull idea.
The latest EFV fared well during recent blast testing, and showed a level of protection comparable to a mid-grade MRAP, Conway said.
“We’ve had some encouraging news in terms of the blast survivability, even before you put the applique armor on there,” Navy Secretary Ray Mabus added.
Still, Mabus told the HAC-D: “If programs don’t perform the way they should, and if the budget ramp is too steep and performance is not up to par, we, the Department of the Navy, Department of the Marine Corps, will not hesitate to kill it and seek an alternative.”