ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center
SOURCE: US Naval Institute
13February2011 1:13pmEST
GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: The likely cancellation of the troubled multibillion-dollar Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) program provides an opportunity for the Marine Corps to rethink 
the strategic purpose of maintaining amphibious assured-access capabilities and its future role in U.S. defense strategy.
The EFV has become a proxy for issues much more significant than a single defense program. The vehicle itself has been conflated with the capability to conduct forcible entry operations onto enemy-controlled shores, and that capability in turn has been conflated with the whole future of the Marine Corps. As one analyst asserts, “Within the Marine Corps, senior leaders understand that the fate of their entire service hinges on the outcome of EFV deliberations. If they don’t field a successor to their obsolete Cold War amphibious vehicles soon, they will have to begin abandoning the mission that has long been at the core of their identity.” (read full report)
