USMC Races To Complete Testing Of EFV

With serious U.S. Defense Department budget decisions about to be made in the coming months, the big question for the U.S. Marine Corps’ Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) is whether the service can finish key program testing before the Pentagon decides whether to keep or ax the vehicle. The Marines started reliability growth testing (RGT) for the EFV on Nov. 15 and should be finished by late January. The tests should show whether the vehicle’s improvements work as they are supposed to—and whether the EFV is meeting the requirements to be the Marines’ next-generation amphibious vehicle. But whether there will be enough time to analyze the test results before the Pentagon has to decide on its budget is an open question. “There are several decisions that may happen before reliability growth testing is complete in late January,” said Emanuel “Manny” Pacheco, EFV program spokesman for the Marines. “However, all indications are that folks want to see how this vehicle performs before they make any decision on it,” Pacheco said. “To that end, even Congress has put enough money in the program to ensure we execute RGT before they pass their judgment.” While the Marines see the $40 billion EFV program as a linchpin in their core expeditionary mission, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has made it clear he is considering the vehicle for a budget cut. “It’s a given that there cannot be a conversation on any Pentagon cost-cutting measures without including the EFV... for good reason,” Pacheco said. “But we are confident that we will have a successful RGT and hopefully prove the naysayers wrong.” The testing is key. “The price tag wouldn’t matter were it not for reliability problems that cropped up in early testing of the vehicle,” said defense industry consultant Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute. The Marines’ fixes for those problems are part of the current round of testing. The Marines say the corps’ future is at stake. “Everybody knows that the service has no backup plan if EVF falters,” Thompson said. “In other words, it will either be out of the amphibious warfare business or it will be facing heavy casualties every time it goes ashore in an opposed landing.”