Shields up: marines face steep cuts to expeditionary vehicle.

• Author: Kennedy, Harold
• Position: MARINE CORPS PROGRAMS

Supporters of the Marine Corps' effort to develop a replacement for its Vietnam-era amphibious assault vehicle are rallying to oppose a provision in the House 2007 defense appropriations bill. The measure would cut funding for the program by $64 million.

That's nearly 30 percent of the $231 million that the Corps requested to start building 15 expeditionary fighting vehicles in 2007. Three senators from states where the EFV would be built are trying to get their colleagues to reject the cuts.

Full funding for the program "is critical," said the senators, George Allen, R-Va.; Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, and George V. Voinovich, R-Ohio. The EFV is the Marine Corps' number one priority ground system acquisition, they noted in a letter to the Republican and Democratic heads of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

"The EFV program is quickly approaching a critical programmatic juncture," the three senators wrote. "It ... is slated to enter low-rate initial production later this year." Any reduction in funding would lead to increased cost and production delays, they said.

The three apparently made their point. The Senate committee, in approving its version of the 2007 defense appropriations legislation, voted in July to provide the requested funding for the program. The full Senate put off the matter until this month.

No matter how the Senate votes, however, the battle is far from over. Some time later, conferees from both houses will meet to work out details for a single bill, including whether to cut EFV funding.

The issue arose in May after the Government Accountability Office reported that the EFV program has been plagued by schedule delays, a 45 percent increase in estimated cost and significant technical problems.

Since beginning its final phase of development in 2001, the program schedule has grown 35 percent or four years, said the GAO report, signed by Patti L. Francis, the agency's director of acquisition and sourcing management. The reported noted:

* The estimated cost to build the 1,013 vehicles that the Marines have been planning to buy from the contractor, General Dynamics Land Systems, of Sterling Heights, Mich., has risen from $8.7 billion in 2001 to $12.6 billion in 2005.

* The requirement for the vehicle to operate continuously has been reduced from 70 hours to 43.5 hours.

* Testing of EFV prototypes revealed design problems with the hull electronic unit, which provides computer processing; the bow flap, which helps generates lift as...