Marines Cut, Kill Programs To Improve Irregular Warfare Capabilities

24 August Inside the Pentagon (Not Online) - Marines Cut, Kill Programs To Improve Irregular Warfare Capabilities.

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The Marine Corps is planning steep cuts to one of its largest modernization programs -- the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle -- as part of a wider effort to recalibrate its forces to better fight irregular combatants, according to internal Pentagon budget documents.

The cuts are spelled out in a summary of the Marine Corps’ new six-year spending plan obtained by InsideDefense.com. The plan also includes “significant changes” to tactical aviation, including purchases of 25 fewer MV-22 tiltrotor Osprey aircraft and 35 fewer Joint Strike Fighter aircraft between fiscal years 2008 and 2013.

The Marine Corps six-year program “has been rebalanced to shift resources from conventional to irregular capabilities and capacities,” states a 10-page executive summary of the service’s program objective memorandum for FY-08 to FY-13.

Readjustments include increases to Marine Corps intelligence and command and control programs and cuts to spending on air defense capabilities that will result in termination of two programs -- the Complementary Low Altitude Weapons System (CLAWS) and the Highly Expeditionary Long Range Air Surveillance Radar (HELRASR).

Also facing cuts in the new six-year plan are the Expeditionary Fire Support System and the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, “despite their capability to support irregular warfare operations,” according to the summary....

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This is a good step. I've heard it mentioned before and advocated by others. Marines amphibous operations and conventional roles should be transitioned as the article sugest and turn to irregular operations. Many may see this as turning the marines into police men, but its what they did up untill WWII and they were pretty dang good at it. Even old C. P. earned some strips at this kind of work in Hati early in his career. Futher, I have talked with some divisional officers in the corps who have been really pissed at the funding prorities over the last few years. I thank this change will only serve to help them become an even better force; now if we can only get the army to make similar changes.

The Marines and the Army share similiar challenges when it comes to budgeting priorities, but I don't see cutting certain programs to feed other essential programs as a positive step. Getting our forces ready for irregular warfare shouldn't cost that much relative to rebuilding our forces and equipment after four plus years of war. Irregular warfare will remain a challenge for several decades, and we must address it, but if the Army and Marines don't have the equipment and weapons to march to Baghdad or objectives in North Korea or elsewhere, then what have we lost? How long will take to regain that loss? We do have national security interests that require a robust and capability conventional warfighting capability still. The Army is currently underbudgeted to simply refit, much less develop new capabilities. I think the real answer is we need more dollars for DoD, and obviously some of the bigger Air Force, Navy and missile defense systems could be cut (but Congress will never allow it) without much risk.