A top Marine Corps official on Tuesday said the service is embarking on an aggressive modernization path bolstered by a recent budget increase.

Lt. Gen. Robert Walsh, chief of the Marine Corps Combat Development Command and Deputy Commandant for Combat Development and Integration, said the service’s seven percent increase in total obligation authority has resulted in a 32 percent spike in its modernization accounts. 

“So that ought to show you that that’s where our focus now is when a new national defense strategy comes out and says we are on a different path. You need to get on it more, you need to drive in a new direction. Certainly, our modernization is a key part of that, so we’ve put in a lot of investment.”

Lt Gen Robert Walsh Chief of Marine Corps Combat Development Command and Deputy Commandant, Combat Development and Integration. (Photo: U.S. Marine Corps)
Lt Gen Robert Walsh Chief of Marine Corps Combat Development Command and Deputy Commandant, Combat Development and Integration. (Photo: U.S. Marine Corps)

Walsh was the morning keynote here at Defense Daily’s first Modular Open Systems Summit.

Within that modernization budget, the Marine Corps is focusing on five areas: information warfare, long range precision fires, command and control in a degraded environment, air defense, and protected mobility and enhanced maneuvers.

To dominate and win on the battlefield going forward, Walsh said combat systems and capabilities “have to be really integrated and open” and the worst thing “is when we have a lot of stovepipes that can’t interoperate together” to share sensitive information and pass targeting information among various platforms.

Walsh noted the Marine Corps is currently missing anti-ship capabilities right now, but open architecture can help fill in the capability in shore to ship vessels. He used the example of a recent test firing of the high mobility rocket artillery system (HIMARS) from the deck of an amphibious ship.

HIMARS is made by Lockheed Martin [LMT].

Last October the Marine Corps conducted a test flight of HIMARS from the flight deck of the USS Anchorage (LPD-23) against a simulated target over 40 miles away.

The test was part of a demonstration that the Marine Corps can contribute to a fight while en route to a combat zone, rather than just being carried by the Navy (Defense Daily, Jan. 10).

“We are right now without an anti-ship missile capability” but “if we’re going to operate with the Navy and in support the sea control mission in the naval campaign, we need the capability to go from shore to ships,” Walsh said.

He added, “I don’t want to have to buy a new radar, buy a new command and control system, I want to buy a missile and plug it in to what we already have.”

The HIMARS test demonstrated the Marine Corps can fire precision fires from the ship. The test included the service’s Common Aviation Command and Control System, CAC2S. Walsh said the Navy liked the CAC2S capability so much they are moving to add it to other amphibious ships.

However, he argued this was merely a demonstration to prove the service has the capability to bring a weapon form the bowels of a ship normally used ashore. Walsh said he would like to see a missile system that can be put on the ship, either integrated into a Vertical Launch System (VLS) launcher or a box of missiles that can be put on shore.

Relatedly, Walsh also provided some details on the Armored Reconnaissance Vehicle (ARV) effort as an example of how the Corps is looking to modernize some capabilities.

The ARV is a long-term effort to replace the Light Armored Vehicle (LAV).

He highlighted the Marine Corps is partnering with the Office for Naval Research (ONR) to develop the ARV, investing $42 million with ONR to see “how can we build open architecture into that vehicle, prototype a couple of these vehicles before we turn this out to industry to develop the vehicles.”

The High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) is fired from the flight deck of the amphibious transport dock ship USS Anchorage (LPD 23) during Dawn Blitz 2017. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Matthew Dickinson)
The High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) is fired from the flight deck of the amphibious transport dock ship USS Anchorage (LPD 23) during Dawn Blitz 2017. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Matthew Dickinson)

Walsh noted industry has given the ARV a lot of attention, namely by sending the Marine Corps and ONR about 282 white papers on what can be put in the ARV during initial industry days.

The service is using a different overall development process opposed to the standard of studying the issue, producing an analysis of alternatives, an initial capabilities document (ICD), request for information (RFI), and sending it out to industry, Then, the process enables a few prime integrators to compete on that capability. Walsh said if you leave the design to requirements personnel they will come up with a certain solution, if you leave it up to the prime integrators, they will come up with a certain solution, but when you open the process up to many more people you have more diverse ideas to help shape the requirement.

In contrast, during the industry days “what we find is all these ideas, not only coming from the prime contractors, but a lot of the subs, the smaller companies that are willing to come in, invest upfront money themselves with new ideas, new innovative ways,” Walsh said.

The general also hinted at what the service is looking for in ARVs: long range and precision fires, sensing, the capability to launch UAVs like ground squads can, and electronic warfare (EW) capability.

Walsh said the prototypes are expected to be finished by 2019-2020, engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) contract phase awarded in the early 2020a, and an initial operational capability (IOC) by 2025-27.

Walsh told reporters following his talk the process could be sped up with additional funding. 

He underscored the reason the service is developing the ARV this way is he “wasn’t seeing the bright ideas coming from industry.”

Walsh added the existing LAV is third generation technology in a world where the F-35s exist as fifth generation and the aircraft industry has already started talking about sixth generation fighter aircraft.