Army, Marine Corps face pitfalls when it comes to modernizing equipment.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew

As budgets tighten and the military reduces ground forces, the Marine Corps' failed attempt to field the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle may serve as a case study for those hoping to modernize military equipment.

Envisioned as a replacement for 1970s-era assault vehicles, the Marine Corps put almost all its eggs in the EFV basket. Starting from the late 1970s, the service's pursuit of a platform that could be launched from a ship as a boat, then land ashore and transform itself into a speedy fighting vehicle consumed much of its research and development budget for ship-to-shore systems.

After three decades of work, and only a handful of prototypes to show for the $3 billion spent on the program, then Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced his intention in January 2011 to cancel the program.

The Marine Corps was left with aging assault vehicles, and no replacement for them in sight.

"It's a cautionary tale and we're seeing the Army make the same choice that the Marines made 10 years ago," said Russell Rumbaugh, co-director of budgeting for foreign affairs and defense at the Stimson Center, a Washington, D.C. based think tank.

As the Army and Marines continue their quest to improve their vehicles and other battlefield technologies, it has two paths to choose from: evolutionary, incremental improvements to existing platforms, or a "Big Bang"--the revolutionary introduction of new technology that is several orders of magnitude better than what it is replacing.

The "Defense Budget: Priorities and Choices" document previewing the 2013 proposal provided clues on which way the services want to go.

"The kind of troop transport vehicles needed to succeed and survive in an irregular warfare environment are included in the Army and Marine Corps modernization plans," the document stated. The Army wants to continue with its goal of developing an all-newr ground combat vehicle It also scrapped preliminary plans to refurbish aging Humvees. Instead, it will attempt to invent a new tactical wheeled vehicle.

That is where there are potential pitfalls, said Rumbaugh, the author of a report, "What We Bought: Defense Procurement from FY01 toFY10."

In it, he argues that as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continued, and new capabilities were required to fight tough adversaries, the services used the large amount of supplemental funding to upgrade their equipment. Whether by happenstance or design, incremental changes to hardware have resulted in improved technologies for soldiers and Marines.

"Especially the major weapons programs that constitute the heart of the sendees' capabilities," he wrote.

As for ground forces, "The Army has higher quality and...