GAO report outlines latest EFV struggles

[unhappycamper]

The first prototype of the Marine Corps Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle is rolled out May 4 during a ceremony at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, Va. The Corps says it has received four of seven new prototypes for the troubled EFV.


GAO report outlines latest EFV struggles
By Dan Lamothe - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Jul 17, 2010 10:19:40 EDT

The reliability of the Marine Corps’ Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle is still uncertain, according to a report by congressional investigators, especially given the fact it’s just beginning to test prototypes.

The Government Accountability Office, in the July 2 report, also said that the “business case” for the entire project should be reconsidered.

The new prototypes, received this year, were developed after numerous failures in the vehicle development within the last decade, prompting the Corps to restructure the program in 2007.

The report was released following a study of the EFV from June 2009 to July 2010, investigators said.

According to the report, the program officials may be overestimating the time it will take to overcome the EFV’s design problems.



unhappycamper comment: Ka Ching.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EFV

On 7 April 2009, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that the EFV program will "continue as-is", pending an amphibious review in the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review.<5> The vehicle has recently been called "exquisite", which Gates has usually reserved for programs he intends to cancel.<6> He later questioned the EFV as the proper ship-to-shore platform on 3 May 2010,<7> the day before the initial prototype was rolled out at a ceremony at Marine Corps Base Quantico.<8>

The USMC has reduced the number to be purchased from 1,013 to 573 AAAVs by 2015 due to escalation in unit cost.