Amphib mission out of sync with needs: QDR - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

Amphib mission out of sync with needs: QDR

The highly anticipated Quadrennial Defense Review is short on details for the Marine Corps, but it does outline an amphibious mission out of sync with the Corps projected needs.

The QDR, released every four years, was conducted from February 2009 through January. It is intended to balance the Defense Department’s long- and short-term goals by addressing everything from counterinsurgency to countering weapons of mass destruction.

The 2010 review shows that the Corps won’t be getting the 38 to 40 amphibious ships it wants — a longstanding point of contention within the Navy Department.

The Navy has 31 amphibs, and the QDR says the department should have between 29 and 31. Commandant Gen. James Conway has said the Navy needs more if it intends to ensure proper maritime protection.

Although the Corps has spent much of the last decade fighting in two landlocked countries, Conway said the Corps needs to return to its amphibious roots.

But Conway acknowledged in January at the annual Surface Navy Association symposium in Arlington, Va., that amphibs are not a top priority for the Navy, which is focused more on building modern ships and maintaining its carrier and submarine fleets.

Defense analyst Loren Thompson, the chief executive officer of the Lexington Institute, an Arlington, Va.-based think tank, said the squabbling over the future of the amphibious fleet isn’t likely to be settled with the QDR.

That part of the force posture looks likely to be a focus of controversy for years to come, Thompson said at a Jan. 20 House Armed Services subcommittee hearing.

Rather than focusing on the nation’s amphibious capabilities, the 2010 QDR places a heavy emphasis on the ongoing war in Afghanistan and irregular threats troops are facing. It urges the services to boost the number of available helicopters, increase assets available to special operators and to update its airborne electronic warfare assets — a need that arose in Iraq and Afghanistan as the services looked to counter the rise in IEDs.

“This truly is a wartime QDR. For the first time, it places the current conflicts at the top of our budgeting, policy, and program priorities, thus ensuring that those fighting Americas wars and their families — on the battlefield, in the hospital, or on the home front — receive the support they need and deserve,” according to a letter from Defense Secretary Robert Gates that was included in the report.

Related reading

• Few specifics for Corps in QDR draft

• More QDR coverage at DefenseNews.com