Balancing act: cost of current operations jeopardize Marine Corps' modernization plans.

• Author: Jean, Grace V.

PANAMA CITY, Fla.--Marine Corps leaders have big dreams of new hardware. They want amphibious tanks that can swim from ships to the shore. They also expect the Navy to equip it with advanced vessels that would, be used for high-end warfare, low-intensity conflict and humanitarian operations.

The problem, as is usually the case, is the budget. Current wars are draining the Pentagon's modernization accounts, not just for the Marines but for the other services as well. The Corps most likely will have to downscale its equipment ambitions, but so far officials insist that they will continue to fight the budget battles as long as necessary to ensure the next-generation weapons systems are funded.

"The challenge I face day to day in the inbox is to support the warrior in the fight. But I also have to worry about the future, and how do I balance the two? That is the hard part of our responsibility right now," said Lt. Gen. George Flynn, deputy commandant for combat development and integration at Marine Corps headquarters. "There is an opportunity cost for what we're doing today in relation to what we need to do tomorrow ... We cannot afford to be a one-trick pony," he told the National Defense Industrial Association expeditionary warfare conference.

Against this backdrop, the 202,000-strong Marine Corps will have to respond to five challenges--disruptive threats, such as cyberattacks; catastrophic events, such as the use of a nuclear weapon; irregular foes from nation-state actors to terrorists; traditional threats from peer competitors; and the most complex one of all--one which combines several of the above, perhaps three or four at the same time, said Flynn.

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Marines in Southwest Asia are working with Afghan army units in the eastern part of their country. Marine special operations forces have taken over command in the western region to help train the locals, and also to root out terrorists. To the south, about 11,000 marines are spread out along the Helmand River to provide security and stability operations for the region's population.

The service's planners predict troops will be engaged in areas of the world known as the "arc of instability," a band of regions around Earth's mid-section where developing nations are threatened by terrorists, unstable governments and other turbulent circumstances. It is concentrated in areas of the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.

Sea-based operations will be mandatory in this region...