Marine Personnel Carrier delay is possible - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

Marine Personnel Carrier delay is possible

The Marine Corps is pushing forward with development of its next-generation troop carrier, but it may be delayed as the service weighs long-term options for its entire fleet of vehicles.

The Marine Personnel Carrier — an armored, high-speed vehicle similar to the Army’s Stryker — was expected to go through “Milestone A” testing this year, with the vehicle evaluated by the Defense Department to see whether it is ready for full-fledged development.

That is no longer certain, said a Marine source with knowledge of the project’s development, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Marine officials are still planning for milestone testing in 2010, but it may be pushed off by the Marine Corps Ground Combat and Tactical Vehicle Strategy, a comprehensive study that will decide which vehicles, and how many of them, the Corps needs in the future. Marine officials have said they don’t expect to field the MPC until at least 2015.

The team with Marine Corps Combat Development Command heading the study “is mid-stride in conducting an assessment to update and clarify the ground combat and tactical vehicle capabilities and capacities required” in the future, according to a one-page position paper developed by the Corps to explain the purpose of the study. The next portion of the study is expected to be completed late this summer.

The delay wouldn’t be the first one for the MPC, which will carry two crewmen and nine to 11 combat-ready Marines during high-speed land maneuvers.

In 2008, Milestone A testing for the vehicle was delayed two years because of fiscal restraints caused by two other big-ticket projects in development, the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, an amphibious armored troop carrier, and the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, a lightweight truck planned to replace the Humvee. To make use of the time, MPC program officials had a single “demonstrator” MPC built last year, and have been testing it since January, Marine officials said. The Corps ultimately plans to buy 630 vehicles.

The demonstrator was built by the Nevada Automotive Test Center, a contractor facility in Carson City, Nev., that has tested several other experimental vehicles, including an early version of the JLTV, said Dave Branham, a spokesman with Program Executive Office-Land Systems, which oversees the MPC project. Photographs released to Marine Corps Times show an armored eight-wheeled vehicle stripped of weapons rolling over rocky terrain on the test center’s property.

The Corps is testing everything from the demonstrator’s drivetrain and suspension system to the electronics that assess how well the vehicle is running. Program managers will make changes as necessary to the long-term plans for the vehicle as they assess the one they have, Branham said.

The demonstrator is about 8½ feet wide and 28 feet long, with a height of 8-9¼ feet, depending on how it is adjusted to ride over terrain, Branham said. He declined to release the speeds at which the vehicle can travel, saying they are currently under evaluation. Existing Strykers weigh between 19 and 26 tons and can travel at least 60 mph on highways. They commonly deploy with an M151 weapons station that can include a .50-caliber machine gun and a 7.62mm M240 machine gun.

The Corps plans to adopt the MPC to fill a perceived shortfall in providing protected mobility to troops. Marine officials have decided the vehicles will be assigned to assault amphibian battalions, although they will not be able to float. Two MPCs will be able to transport one reinforced infantry squad.

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