Analysts: Corps needs copters fast

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By William Matthews
Staff report

For the Marines, whose equipment is being chewed up by the desert heat and sand, the “helicopter situation is dire,” say two defense analysts who have studied the effect of the war in Iraq on Marine Corps equipment and readiness.

The Corps has only 150 of the 160 CH-53E heavy-lift helicopters it needs, and may have to take another 15 out of service in 2010. Replacements aren’t expected to begin arriving before 2016, say Lawrence Korb and Max Bergmann of the Center for American Progress.

And the Corps’ CH-46Es, which average 46 years old, are wearing out faster than they can be replaced by MV-22s. The Corps plans to buy 360 MV-22s, but the problem-plagued tiltrotor aircraft won’t be in full production until the end of this decade, Korb said.

The Marines will almost certainly suffer a helicopter gap, he said.

To fill the gap, the Corps should buy “a couple hundred” H-60 helicopters flown by the Army or H-92 helicopters flown by the Air Force, and 10 to 20 heavy-lift helicopters, Korb said.

The MV-22 has been in development since 1983, and has “experienced significant technical and cost problems,” he said. The Marines have become “too dependent on a single airframe — the MV-22 — and now face critical shortages as a result.”

The war is also grinding down a wide range of other Marine Corps equipment, said Korb and Bergmann.

Forty percent of the Corps’ ground equipment and 50 percent of its communications gear is in Iraq, where it is being used up to nine times planned rates. To maintain readiness in Iraq, the Corps is taking equipment from non-deployed units and depleting prepositioned weapons and supplies, the pair said in a 25-page report issued Aug. 23.

The Marines need $6.8 billion for repairing and replacing war-damaged equipment in 2007, and should receive at least $5.3 billion for that purpose each year they remain in Iraq, the report says.

The experience in Iraq should also prompt the Marines to reconsider how much lighter and more mobile it really wants to be, Korb said.

“Tanks and armored personnel carriers have been out of favor with the advocates of military transformation for so long that their value and versatility in Iraq has come as something of a revelation,” the report says.

“Not only have they provided critical capabilities in waging urban battles, but they have proven surprisingly relevant in the conduct of counterinsurgency operations.”

Iraq has demonstrated that heavy armor remains important, Korb said.

Thus, the Marines should consider buying Stryker armored vehicles that the Army now uses in addition to the Light Armored Vehicles that Marines now operate, Korb said. The Marines should also develop a plan for enhancement of its Abrams tanks, he said.

Overall, the Marine Corps needs more money, Korb said.

The Corps’ share of the Navy budget should increase from 14 percent to 17 percent. The Navy is asking Congress for $128.3 billion for 2007.