Marines defend new amphibious vehicle: cost overruns are nowhere near Nunn-McCurdy breach, says program manager.

• Author: Tiron, Roxana

The Marine Corps' next-generation amphibious assault vehicle is under close scrutiny as a result of program delays and budget overruns. But supporters of the vehicle claim that the delays are justified, because additional testing is needed. The cost increases are moderate, supporters said, and nowhere close to meeting the 15 percent threshold set by the Nunn-McCurdy legislation.

The AAAV--or advanced amphibious assault vehicle-was conceived in the late 1980s as a high-mobility platform that would move forces rapidly from a ship to the surface 25 miles from the shoreline, so they could rapidly advance into the objective area. Unlike the current amphibious platform, the AAV, the new vehicle will swim at about 25 knots and will keep up with the Abrams tank ashore.

Marine Col. Clayton Nans, program manager for the AAAV, said that the plan is to evaluate nine prototypes until 2006, when the Corps is scheduled to begin funding the production of up to 1,013 vehicles through 2017. Operational test and evaluation is slated for 2007. The prime contractor is General Dynamics Land Systems, with subcontractots MTU, Allison, Honeywell, Ball and CDC.

Nans said that the 37-ton AAAV has the latest technologies available today for ground-combat vehicles. "Jr is not just the largest jet-ski," he said in an interview during the 2002 Combat Vehicles Conference, sponsored by the National Defense Industrial Association.

The program had to be restructured to add another year of testing, he said. The funding was "re-baselined," to adjust to the schedule change. Nans dismissed speculation that the AAAV program is in danger of being cancelled because it's in violation of the Nunn-McCurdy legislation. The law mandates that the Defense Department notify Congress when a program experiences a 15 percent cost overrun. If a program is 25 percent over budget, then the Pentagon has to certify to Congress that the program is essential to national security, that there is no other alternative, that the costs are under control and that the management is in place to keep a lid on it.

During a roundtable with reporters in late March, Edward C. "Pete" Aldridge, Jr., the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, suggested that the AAAV is among a dozen major programs "which have a potential Nunn-McCurdy breach."

According to Nans, "That is ridiculous. We are not even close." He said that, at most, the program costs have increased by about 8 percent.

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