Hearing of the Seapower Subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee - Opening Statement of Sen. Hirono, Hearing on Hearing to Receive Testimony on Marine Corps Ground Modernization in Review of the Defense Authorization Request for Fiscal Year 2019 and the Future Years Defense Program

Hearing

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. testify today on the FY19 budget request for Marine Corps ground modernization programs. testimony and for your service to our country. And we thank you for your The 2018 National Defense Strategy, NDS, states that the primary challenge facing our Nation is the reemergence of long-term strategic competition with Russia and China, near-peer competitors.

Marine Corps Base Hawaii and marines serving throughout the PACOM area of responsibility are vital to protecting our strategic interests in the Asia-Pacific regions and -- region -- and our national defense.
military operations around the globe, and we must ensure that they remain ready and capable to address contingencies at a moment's notice.

The men and women who serve in Our marines support A vital part of supporting readiness capability is
ensuring that our marines have access to combat equipment that will support them in this mission.
goal, the FY19 budget request makes targeted investments in the ground combat and tactical vehicle portfolio of the Marine Corps. Corps procurement and 850 million for research, development, To achieve this
It includes a total of 2.9 billion for Marine test, and evaluation.

One of the most important Marine Corps ground modernization programs is the amphibious combat vehicle, ACV. vehicle, AAV, which has been in operation for over 40 years. As the Chairman has noted, we need to modernize your combat vehicles.

The ACV program will replace the assault amphibious As part of the ACV acquisition strategy, the Marine
Corps has awarded contracts to two vendors, each tasked with building prototypes for testing and evaluation.
summer, the Marine Corps will select one of these vendors to be the prime contractor for the program.
request includes 167 million for the prime contractor to build 30 vehicles for the ACV 1.1 program.

Marine Corps will begin designing and developing the ACV 1.2 variant. amphibious capability, the ACV 1.2 will be a fully amphibious vehicle. million in research, development, test, and evaluation funding for the new ACV 1.2 program. from our witnesses on the status of the ACV program.

This The FY19 budget In addition, the Unlike the ACV 1.1 program, which has limited The FY19 budget request includes 55.8 I welcome an update As the ACV program moves forward, the Marine Corps 23 continues to upgrade assault amphibious vehicles, AAV.

Marine Corps first fielded the AAV more than four decades ago, and marines will continue to rely on these vehicles The until they are replaced by new ACV vehicles. protect our men and women who rely on the AAV, the Marine Corps is modernizing a portion of AAVs with survivability upgrades.

In order to The final Marine Corps vehicle program I want to highlight is the joint light tactical vehicle, JLTV.
is a joint Army and Marine Corps program that will replace 8 the high mobility multi-wheeled vehicle, better known as the 9 Humvee JLTV

The FY19 budget includes 607 million to procure 1,642 JLTV vehicles. Marines intend to replace roughly one-third of their legacy Humvee fleet.

Over the course of the program, the In addition to the major vehicle modernization programs, the Marine Corps has prioritized two other programs in the FY19 budget to support our marine forces: The first is the ground-air task-oriented radar, or GATOR. replace legacy radar systems currently fielded by the Marine Air-Ground Task Force. six systems in FY19.

The GATOR is an expeditionary radar system that will The Marine Corps plans to procure The second program is the high-mobility artillery rocket system. capability gaps in long-range artillery and rocket systems.

To address these shortfalls, the budget request includes 134 25 million to acquire new high-mobility artillery rocket Like the Army, the Marine Corps has systems for the 5th battalion 10th marines, which is being reactivated.

Again, thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing. And I look forward to hearing from our witnesses.

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