Given the future operating environment and reduced defense spending, the U.S. Army and Marine Corps would be better off investing in science and technology research rather than launching new vehicle development programs, according to a new think tank report.
The report, released March 6 by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA), recommends the U.S. military funnels its research dollars into areas like active protection, hybrid-electric propulsion and robotic systems.
“Unless you have a next-generation system that really promises a huge leap in overall effectiveness and performance — and it has to be a high confidence that you’re going to get this kind of outcome — then it doesn’t make a lot of sense to pour a lot of money into developing a new system that is only going to be marginally better than the one it’s replacing,” CSBA President Andrew Krepinevich said.
Krepinevich, who co-authored the report with CSBA analyst Eric Lindsey, said a marginal improvement could mean 50 to 70 percent better. That is to say, a new system would have to be a lot better to make the investment worthwhile, he said.
Instead, the Army and Marine Corps should put its limited research dollars into areas where a big breakthrough would greatly boost overall effectiveness and justify a new generation of systems, Krepinevich said.
His comments could be viewed as directed at the Army’s Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) program, which the service has said will bring incremental improvements to today’s fleet of infantry fighting vehicles.
However, Lindsey said they intentionally avoided arguing for or against any specific programs in the report. Instead, the authors wanted to provide some insights into the future operating environment and outline some of the tradeoffs the Army and Marine Corps will have to make.
While the paper urges the services to pursue recap over ambitious development programs, it also argues that “designing in surplus space, weight, and power in order to facilitate future modification” will be crucial to future vehicle development.