McCain Hammers Commandant Nominee Neller Over Iraq

McCain Hammers Commandant Nominee Neller Over Iraq
McCain Hammers Commandant Nominee Neller Over Iraq

CAPITOL HILL: UPDATE BEGINS The administration’s nominee for Marine Corps Commandant, Lt. Gen. Bob Neller, set off a firestorm from Sen. John McCain this morning. After two hours of an otherwise congenial confirmation hearing, the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman erupted over Neller’s description of the current administration strategy against the Islamic State. That strategy relies on airpower and advisors…

Gen. Walsh Taking Custody Of Marine Corps’ Soul: Where’s Glueck Going?

Gen. Walsh Taking Custody Of Marine Corps’ Soul: Where’s Glueck Going?
Gen. Walsh Taking Custody Of Marine Corps’ Soul: Where’s Glueck Going?

WASHINGTON: The most senior Marine on the Navy staff is going home to Quantico. It’s just 35 miles down I-95, but it’s a world away. Sometime this summer — the exact date’s still to be determined a Marine spokesman told me — Maj. Gen. Robert Walsh should pin on a third star and move from the…

Pentagon Struggles To Save New Programs: Kendall

Pentagon Struggles To Save New Programs: Kendall
Pentagon Struggles To Save New Programs: Kendall

[UPDATED with Hagel, Shaffer comments] NATIONAL PRESS CLUB: The four armed services only submitted their draft 2016 budgets to the Office of the Secretary of Defense “basically yesterday,” Undersecretary Frank Kendall said this morning — and he’s already “concerned.” As the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer, Kendall sees worrying signs. With the automatic budget cuts known as…

Marines Seek New Tech To Get Ashore Vs. Missiles; Reinventing Amphib Assault

Marines Seek New Tech To Get Ashore Vs. Missiles; Reinventing Amphib Assault
Marines Seek New Tech To Get Ashore Vs. Missiles; Reinventing Amphib Assault

NATIONAL HARBOR: Cheap grey-market missiles and commercially available radar kits are forcing the Marines to reinvent amphibious warfare for the 21st century. The new Corps concept, Expeditionary Force 21, predicts long-range threats will force the fleet to stay at least 65 nautical miles offshore, a dozen times the distance that existing Marine amphibious vehicles are…

A Sneak Peek At Marines’ New Amphibious Combat Vehicle

A Sneak Peek At Marines’ New Amphibious Combat Vehicle
A Sneak Peek At Marines’ New Amphibious Combat Vehicle

UPDATED 1:35 pm Wednesday with more details from Lt. Gen. Glueck WASHINGTON: The Marines are about to move out sharply with their once-stalled Amphibious Combat Vehicle, the smallest service’s biggest program. After years of uncertainty and a last-minute change of course that came too late to make it into the administration’s budget request for 2015,…

Marines Budget Scramble: Commandant Resurrects MPC, ACV In Limbo

Marines Budget Scramble: Commandant Resurrects MPC, ACV In Limbo
Marines Budget Scramble: Commandant Resurrects MPC, ACV In Limbo

Imagine you’re a military supply officer, weary but proud as you watch the train you’ve laboriously loaded with gear roll out of the depot towards the front. And then you realize: You packed the wrong tank. Now you need to get that vehicle off and the right vehicle on — while the train’s already leaving…

Amos Says Marines To Drop High Speed ACV, For Now; Phased Approach Likely

Amos Says Marines To Drop High Speed ACV, For Now; Phased Approach Likely
Amos Says Marines To Drop High Speed ACV, For Now; Phased Approach Likely

CRYSTAL CITY, Va: For years the Marines have argued they need a new amphibious combat vehicle that can cut through water at high speeds so Marines can get to the beach safely and then fight their way inland. But Marine Commandant James Amos signaled yesterday there just isn’t enough money to buy a “planing” vehicle…

Marines 2014: Year Of Decision For Amphibious Combat Vehicle

Marines 2014: Year Of Decision For Amphibious Combat Vehicle
Marines 2014: Year Of Decision For Amphibious Combat Vehicle

Marine Commandant James Amos must make a tough call this year on a program that will define the future Marine Corps: whether to develop and buy the Amphibious Combat Vehicle. “The Commandant considers a replacement craft for his aging AAV7 Amphibious Tractor to be his number-one priority,” said Gen. Amos’s spokesman, Lt. Col. David Nevers,…

Marines, Navy March Into ‘Fiscal Valley Forge’

PANAMA CITY, FLORIDA: As budgets tighten, the Navy and Marine Corps are looking at a host of ways to save, from installing LED lights on ships to slowing vehicle purchases to centralizing power on the Chief of Naval Operations’ staff. “We are entering a fiscal Valley Forge, a time of austerity,” said Ariane Whittemore, the…

Marines Must Juggle Procurement of JLTV, ACV, F-35: Commandant Amos

PENTAGON: Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos laid out today the Corps’ tricky balancing act, simultaneously cutting personnel, spreading out weapons programs, and shifting from counterinsurgency on land in Afghanistan to seaborne crisis response in the Pacific. The big Marine Corps news of the last 24 hours was the award of development contracts to three firms,…