Defense Tech – Gates Opaque on EFV Call

Norman Polmar writes that one of the decisions not yet made by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is the future of the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV), the new “amtrac” being developed for the Marine Corps.

Defense Tech – MV-22 Osprey Going To Sea

Normal Polmar writes that the Marine Corps is about to deploy a squadron of Bell-Boeing MV-22B Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft aboard an amphibious assault ship. The pending departure of the USS Bataan (LHD 5) will mark the first time that an Osprey squadron has “gone to sea” for operations with a Marine assault unit.

Los Angeles Times – In It Together Part 5

The fifth and final part of a series by David Zucchino following 3 friends through boot camp to deployment and back. They joined on the buddy program with high hopes. It’s been a hard road.

Los Angeles Times – In It Together Part 4

Part 4 of a series by David Zucchino following 3 friends through boot camp to deployment and back. They’ve learned to take lives. Now the friends will risk their own.

Los Angeles Times – In It Together Part 2

Part 2 of a series by David Zucchino following 3 friends through boot camp to deployment and back. Three best friends headed off as Daniel, Daryl and Steven. Now they’ll all answer to ‘Recruit!’

Los Angeles Times – In It Together Part 1

Part 1 of a series by David Zucchino following 3 friends through boot camp to deployment and back. Three good friends prepare for the same boot camp platoon as part of the buddy program. They are eager, but their parents are torn.

Virginian Pilot – Osprey heads out on Bataan for deployment

Almost 20 years after its first test flight, and a decade since two fatal crashes grounded it, the Osprey is poised for its first full deployment with a Navy amphibious group.

DefenseTech – Keeping Marines Off The Beach

Norman Polmar writes that one of the leading candidates for cancellation by the new administration is the long-gestating Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV), the advanced “amtrac” that has been under development for almost two decades.

Los Angeles Times – Marines drafting plan to send more troops to Afghanistan

Marine Corps leaders are devising a plan to send thousands of additional combat troops to Afghanistan to wage aggressive warfare against the Taliban that they expect could take years.

Associated Press – Helicopter-plane Osprey fares well as ferry in Iraq

After a troubled history, the V-22 Osprey – half-helicopter, half-plane – has been ferrying troops and equipment across Iraq for a little more than a year without a major incident.

Associated Press – High altitudes, dispersed battalions and restricted travel zones are among the serious challenges facing the Marines as it weighs the resources needed to perform its missions in Afghanistan where violence has escalated.
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Defense Technology International – The heart of future joint aviation plans pivots on where the services go with electronic attack and other network centric attack. A relatively small $125 million contract to Northrop Grumman may signal the direction of the shake out. It has landed a contract to build Lot 4 of its ICAP III airborne electronic attack systems for the U.S. Marine Corpsí growing fleet of EA-6B Prowlers.
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Associated Press – The Pentagon has extended the tour of 2,200 Marines in Afghanistan, after insisting for months the unit would come home on time. The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which is doing combat operations in the volatile south, will stay an extra 30 days and come home in early November rather than October
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USA Today – Faced with an alarming increase in sniper attacks in Iraq, Marine commanders in late 2006 began looking for ways to turn the tables on an elusive enemy. The result is the combat hunter program, an experiment in training Marines to fight insurgents by making the Marines as wily as the enemy they face. The training combines outdoor skills culled from hunting and tracking with the street smarts developed by police and Marines who grew up in cities.
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Associated Press – U.S. Marines are crossing the sands of southern Afghanistan for the first time in years, providing a boost to a NATO coalition that is growing but still short on manpower.
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Washington Post – AH-1 Super Cobra pilot Katie Horner has blasted the enemy with missiles and a three-barrel 20mm turreted cannon. Being a woman hasn’t made her any less lethal.
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Marine Corps Times – Sean Naylor on the actions of Marine Special Operations Company Fox in Afghanistan.
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Washington Post – People on this faraway island — a U.S. territory 7,824 miles west of Los Angeles — delight in calling Guam the “tip of the spear” for its role defending U.S. interests in the Far East???The Pentagon has chosen Guam, a quirkily American place that marries the beauty of Bali with the banality of Kmart, as the prime location in the western Pacific for projecting U.S. military muscle.
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Washington Post – President Bush has approved an “extraordinary, one-time” deployment of about 3,200 Marines to Afghanistan for seven months starting this spring, the Pentagon announced yesterday, while defense officials continued to urge NATO allies to supply more forces to fill a long-standing shortfall of 7,500 troops that commanders say are needed to improve security.
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Washington Post – The U.S. military is planning to deploy about 3,000 Marines to Afghanistan this spring to counter an expected offensive by Taliban insurgents, a Pentagon spokesman said yesterday, citing NATO allies’ failure to provide additional combat troops.
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Virginian Pilot – A look at how the MV-22 Osprey is doing on its first operational deployment.
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New York Times – Senior Pentagon and military officials said Wednesday that Defense Secretary Robert Gates had decided against a proposal to shift Marine Corps forces from Iraq to take the lead in American operations in Afghanistan.
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Defense and the National Interest – William Lind analyses the Marines’ proposal to focus their operations in Afghanistan.
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Army Times – Sean Naylor writes that Generals in the Army and on the Joint Staff reacted with surprise at a Marine Corps move to assume the Armyís combat role in Afghanistan and expressed doubt that the Corps could handle the mission without substantial support from the larger ground service.
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Washington Post – The Marine Corps is making a bid to take over the command and primary mission of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, anticipating a gradual withdrawal of its troops from Iraq’s western province of Anbar.

New York Times – Marines Press to Remove Their Forces From Iraq.
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