October 15, 2008: The U.S. Marine Corps has gone back to the
drawing board with its new EFV (Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle). It has made
changes in the electronics, waterproofing of electrical elements, the gun turret and the stabilizers
(for when it is moving in the water). Seven new prototypes are being built, and
will be ready for testing in about 18 months. If those tests are positive,
production could begin in six years, but large numbers of the new vehicle would
not reach marines for another ten years. Under the original plan, the EFV was
to enter service this year.
The new prototypes are the result of
Congress refusing to provide money for mass production until reliability and
protection (against roadside bombs) issues were taken care of. So far, existing
prototypes EFVs have had one failure, on average, for every 4.5 hours of
operation. The marines insist they have fixed the reliability and protection
issues, and this persuaded Congress to provide money to build seven of the
modified EFVs to confirm that. The seven new EFVs will be used to test reliability,
as well as roadside bomb protection. If the tests are successful, Congress will
allow development to continue.
Two years ago, it was decided that, instead of
buying 1,013 EFVs, the order would be cut 44 percent, to 573 vehicles. High
development expenses have resulted in per vehicle cost of over $12 million.
Costs have continued to climb, and each EVF will now cost over $22 million. That's
more than twice what the most recent model M-1 tank costs.
The marines ordered the first 15
production models of its EFV in late 2005. Tests with these vehicles did not go
well. Initially, the high-speed water-jet propulsion system feature was the
cause of most of the problems. Since the EFV is an amphibious armored vehicle, the
water propulsion feature had to stay.
The EFV was previously called the AAAV
(Advanced Amphibious Assault Vehicle). Weighing nearly 36 tons, the EFV is 10.5
feet tall, 12 feet wide and just under 30 feet long. It's armed with a 30mm
automatic cannon (MK34 Bushmaster) and a 7.62 mm co-axial machine gun. The EFV
also has better armor protection and electronics than the AAV7 is replaces.
The EFV has been in development for
over a decade, and has been delayed largely because of a complex water-jet
propulsion system which allows it to travel at 60 kilometers an hour while in
the water. This capability was specified to reduce the danger (from enemy fire)
when the EFVs were moving from their transports to shore, a distance of 30-50
kilometers. The additional gear required for the water jet system made the
vehicle less robust and reliable, and fixing those problems has taken a lot of
time. Otherwise, the EFV is basically a truly amphibious Infantry Fighting
Vehicle (IFV), similar to the army's smaller M-2 Bradley. The EFV has a crew of
three, and carries 18 passengers.
The current force of 1,057 AAV7s
entered service three decades ago and are falling apart. Moreover, some two
thirds of the AAV7s saw service in Iraq, where they got as much use in two
months as they normally did in two years of peacetime operations. In response to
this, most of the AAV7s are being refurbished, so they can still be used until
the end of the decade, when enough EFVs will be entering service to replace the
older vehicles.
The EFV is about 25 percent heavier
than the AAV7, and somewhat larger. It now costs nearly ten times as much as
the $2.5 million AAV7 (taking inflation into account). The marines apparently feel they can get by
with half as many amphibious armored vehicles because future wars are likely to
be more dependent on delivering troops by air, or moving them around in armored
hummers.
