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While the White House, Secretary of Defense Gates, and the Commandant of the Marine Corps all support the cancellation of the costly and problematic Marine Corps experimental Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, General Dynamics and Congress haven’t given up hope yet. EFV maker General Dynamics announced this afternoon that prototypes of the vehicle—which would cost the $18 million apiece—have completed the required 500-hour reliability growth test at the Marine Corps’ Amphibious Vehicle Test Branch at Camp Pendleton, “demonstrating reliability that exceeds the testing threshold by 90 percent,” according to a company statement. GD says that the vehicle is currently reaching 31.2 hours mean time between operational mission failures, almost doubling the 16.4-hour performance required to meet the tests threshold for success. General Dynamics delivered seven prototype vehicles to the Marine Corps last year for testing, and says that the latest round puts the program on track “to successfully complete the System Development and Demonstration-2 phase.” The company goes on to report that the preliminary failures it has recorded “are low-consequence issues … no systems redesign work is required as a result of test findings.” The new Congress is also getting in on the act. On Monday, House Armed Services Committee chairman Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif., wrote to Gates, saying “we specifically request that no ‘stop work’ orders be issued until our committee has the opportunity to fully examine all of the efficiencies you have proposed.” Pic of Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle courtesy USMC
EFV maker General Dynamics announced this afternoon that prototypes of the vehicle—which would cost the $18 million apiece—have completed the required 500-hour reliability growth test at the Marine Corps’ Amphibious Vehicle Test Branch at Camp Pendleton, “demonstrating reliability that exceeds the testing threshold by 90 percent,” according to a company statement. GD says that the vehicle is currently reaching 31.2 hours mean time between operational mission failures, almost doubling the 16.4-hour performance required to meet the tests threshold for success. General Dynamics delivered seven prototype vehicles to the Marine Corps last year for testing, and says that the latest round puts the program on track “to successfully complete the System Development and Demonstration-2 phase.” The company goes on to report that the preliminary failures it has recorded “are low-consequence issues … no systems redesign work is required as a result of test findings.”
The new Congress is also getting in on the act. On Monday, House Armed Services Committee chairman Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif., wrote to Gates, saying “we specifically request that no ‘stop work’ orders be issued until our committee has the opportunity to fully examine all of the efficiencies you have proposed.”
Tags: marines, EFV, general-dynamics, ar99