• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

STATEMENT BY
GENERAL WILLIAM L. NYLAND
ASSISTANT COMMANDANT OF THE MARINE CORPS
UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS

BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON READINESS
HOUSE ARMED SERVICE COMMITTEE
UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MARCH 18, 2003 

                       

Introduction

Chairman Hefley, Congressman Ortiz, distinguished members of the Committee.  It is my privilege to report to you today, on the readiness of your Marine Corps.   On behalf of all Marines and their families, I want to thank the Committee for its continued support.  Your commitment to increasing the warfighting and crisis response capabilities of our Nation's Armed Forces and improving the quality of life of our men and women in uniform is central to the strength of the Marine Corps.  Your continued commitment to resource the equipping, training, and maintenance of the Corps enables us to remain the Nation's "Expeditionary Force in Readiness."

Operations

The Marine Corps maintains a global, expeditionary perspective, and we posture our forces accordingly.  Our forces serve as a strategic deterrent, as an instrument of diplomacy, and as a demonstration of our National resolve to protect freedom wherever it is threatened.  We are a transformational force that is affordable, scalable, sustainable, and prepared to respond across the spectrum of operations, from humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, to major conflict.  Your Marines are trained and prepared to be first on the scene, first to help, first to fight and to serve as an enabler and nucleus for follow-on forces.  Marine Corps operations throughout the past year have again highlighted the versatility, flexibility, interoperability, and expeditionary nature of our Service.  Missions in support of Operations ENDURING FREEDOM and NOBLE EAGLE mark the most visible recent accomplishments of our forward-deployed units. 

Your Marine Corps is organized as a "Total Force," with the Active and Reserve components serving and fighting as one.  214,558 Marines comprise the Total Force, with 175,000 in the Active Forces and 39,558 in the Reserves.  Approximately, sixty-three percent of our operating forces are forward deployed today in the ongoing Global War on Terrorism.  They are operating in diverse locations, from Afghanistan to Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, the Arabian Gulf, Southwest Asia, Jordan, the Horn of Africa, Turkey, Georgian Republic, Iceland, Guantanamo Bay, Colombia, the Philippines, and North East Asia. 

In partnership with the Navy, we continue to maintain the Nation's only medium-weight forcible entry capability in the Marine Expeditionary Brigade (MEB).  Recent experiences in the deployment of our units validate the inherent flexibility of our Marine Air Ground Task Forces (MAGTFs).  MAGTFs can be task organized from available forces and scaled to meet almost any mission requirement, while remaining easily deployable and sustainable.  In Afghanistan, we combined the combat power of two Marine Expeditionary Units to form Task Force 58 and added a headquarters, based on a MEB Command Element.  We then projected these forces six hundred miles ashore into hostile territory.  More recently, we demonstrated our ability to deploy amphibious MEB-sized forces from both the East and West Coasts. 

Additionally, our Maritime Prepositioning Forces (MPF) again proved their viability and effectiveness.  In February 2003, we rapidly offloaded two squadrons of our MPF - eleven ships within eighteen days.  Further, the equipment coming off Maritime Prepositioning Ships Squadrons 1 and 2 had equipment readiness ratings of 98% and 99% respectively.  MPF equipment is modern and 100% compatible with our active force, and once offloaded, it is immediately available for integration into a MEB-sized force.  An MPF-MEB can then be employed as a stand-alone MEB, scaled down as a Special Purpose MAGTF, or combined with a second MPF-MEB as a springboard to a Marine Expeditionary Force.  These experiences also reaffirm our requirement for a 3.0 MEB amphibious lift capability and our vision for future dramatic increases in amphibious - MPF interoperability.

We are currently engaged in a series of Sea Trial experiments with the Navy to enhance the capabilities of our Marine Expeditionary Units (Special Operations Capable) as part of a future Expeditionary Strike Group capability, while also exploring seabasing options.  This demonstrated success by the Navy/Marine Corps team portends great success for the future of seabasing.  Seabasing is much, much more than logistics.  It will provide future forces the ability to maneuver from networked attack positions at sea; supported by major command and control elements, precision strike capability, and sustainment.  We are proud of our successes and will continue to seek bold, innovative ways to test and develop them further in anticipation of emerging challenges.         

The international security landscape is perpetually changing.   Now more than ever, we are being driven to maintain a conspicuous force protection posture at all times.  In the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, our awareness sharpened, our training became more focused, and our antiterrorist and force protection efforts expanded.  As a result, our forces were realigned to meet the challenges of a changing world and to support the National Military Strategy's "1-4-2-1" force shaping construct.  We are task organized for success, well-trained, well-equipped, sustainable, and capable of performing missions at home or in the farthest corners of the world. 

We will continue to prosecute the Global War on Terrorism, while preparing for what lies ahead in the 21^st Century.  We are moving forward with a vision for the future, and our FY 2004 budget request will serve us well in meeting current challenges, and will also allow us to continue making progress in addressing future challenges. 

Marines and Their Families

The most advanced aircraft, ship, or weapons system is of little value without highly motivated and well-trained people to man it.  People and leadership remain the real bedrocks of our Corps' capabilities.  We have sought out and used better business practices to achieve greater cost-effectiveness, improved performance, and to permit us to focus on our warfighting core competencies.  To that end, we have aggressively worked to reduce the number of Marines in non-core business areas and to date, have saved millions of dollars annually and returned almost 900 Marines to the operating forces.  Further, we have optimized the use of military to civil service conversions and contractor support where appropriate; and will continue to search for additional ways to return more Marines to warfighting units. 

The Marine Corps is by design a youthful service with sixty-seven percent of our entire force serving their first tour.  Our recruiters work tirelessly to sustain our ranks with the highest quality young men and women.  Due to their herculean efforts, we have met our accession goals during the past seven years for enlisted recruiting and the past twelve years for officer recruiting.  Our recruiters established this record of excellence while maintaining our high entry-level standards, and they did so despite varying economic conditions and attitudes toward military service. 

Retaining the highest quality Marines to lead our young force is a critical ingredient of our success.  The Marine Corps has two enlisted retention plans - the First Term Alignment Plan and the Subsequent Term Alignment Plan.  To date, both plans are indicating healthy continuation rates for our career forces at all levels.  Military compensation, when competitive with the private sector, is a key factor in attracting and retaining talented individuals of the highest caliber and character.  At the same time, continuation pay allows us to target specific qualifications and skills, which greatly aids in their retention in the force.  Officer retention rates are at an eighteen-year high, maintaining the strong performance of the last two years.  Despite these positive trends, we cannot become complacent.  Retaining aviators remains a challenge, and retention initiatives assist us in retaining sufficient quantities to fill our cockpits and other assignments with qualified naval aviators.  Thank you for your continuing support to provide competitive compensation, health care, and retirement benefits - three areas that are critical to our recruiting and retention efforts. 

While we recruit Marines, we almost always retain families - it becomes a family decision for a Marine to stay on for an entire career.  The support of spouses, children and parents brings out the best performance in Active Duty and Reserve Marines, particularly when they are assured that all is being done to support their families at home when they must deploy overseas.  We will continue to make every effort to improve the quality of life of Marines and their families.  One method of accomplishing this goal is through improvements in housing and community service programs.

The Marine Corps owns or leases approximately 25,000 homes for Service Members with families.  Of the approximately 23,000 we currently own, about 16,000 have been deemed inadequate.  The FY 2004 budget will allow us to eliminate these inadequate units through Public Private Ventures (PPV) and traditional military construction by the end of FY 2007.  This budget will also eliminate our housing deficit of approximately 5,100 units by FY 2009.  Your continued support of your Marines and their families is greatly appreciated.   

Because of our expeditionary culture, deployment support is provided to Marines and their families as part of our normal operations, largely through the efforts of Marine Corps Community Services (MCCS).  MCCS offers a wide array of family services, and support during the pre-deployment, deployment, and post-deployment phases of our deployment operations.  The MCCS also offers numerous programs focused on new parent support and the prevention of domestic violence, as well as services and programs for infants, toddlers, children, teens, and exceptional family members.  The MCCS has implemented similar support programs for our single Marines.  The MCCS is working with our Marine Corps Reserves to strengthen the training and support for their family readiness programs as well.  We are extremely grateful for your past support and ask that you support the quality of life programs in our FY 2004 budget request.

Training

We believe in the enduring wisdom, "train as you fight" and know that tough, realistic training is essential for success in combat.  Our forces are well trained.  We train as full members of the joint team, and over the past year, Marines participated in more than 200 service, joint, and combined exercises.  These included live fire, field training, command post, and computer assisted exercises.  Participation included both Active and Reserve forces and varied in size from small units to Marine Expeditionary Forces.  Our FY 2004 budget request provides sufficient funding for both individual and unit training as well as for training munitions.   

However, we believe our training would be more effective were it not for the increasing pressures of encroachment issues.  Encroachment is one of the [WJB1] dominant readiness problems we will face in the 21st Century and it poses a serious challenge to our ability to train to the level of operational readiness required for combat.   For the Marine Corps, endangered species issues are at the forefront of our encroachment concerns.  Ever increasing urban and residential areas now surround Marine installations that were originally in rural locations.  Our training areas often provide excellent habitat for threatened and endangered species; serving as a natural oasis amid the expanding crush of densely populated urban areas.   Pending environmental litigation could cause over 65% of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar and 57% of Camp Pendleton to be designated critical habitat. 

The Marine Corps is conducting a series of quantification studies to assess the impact of encroachment on Camp Pendleton's ability to support the operational readiness training requirements of its tenant units.  Current indications are that encroachment, coupled with the lack of clarity in administering existing environmental legislation, has restricted the Marine Corps' ability to train to the full spectrum of the units' core competencies by approximately thirty percent at Camp Pendleton, one of our major training facilities.  This study will serve as a model to help quantify the impact of encroachment on all our major bases, stations, and ranges to support training.  The Marine Corps is not asking to be exempt from this nation's environmental laws, but rather seeks some limited flexibility and clarification of certain issues under selected existing environmental laws.  The Marine Corps supports the reintroduction of legislative clarifications for provisions not approved in last year's Department of Defense Readiness and Range Preservation Initiative that will enable our installations to fulfill their primary charter as a combat test and training center.  Unimpeded access to our installations, with their air and ground training ranges, is critical to the Marine Corps remaining America's "Expeditionary Force in Readiness."   Our ultimate goal is to "fight the way we train," while conserving the natural environment.   

Infrastructure

The readiness of our installations is reported through the Commanding Officer's Readiness Reporting System (CORRS) program.  Our recent standardization of installation reporting procedures, which includes a more consistent and stringent reporting standard, resulted in a rebaselining of our readiness rates.  The actual condition of our facilities has not changed, but their portrayal is now consistent and more accurate across the Corps.  

Our bases and stations provide the launching platforms from where we train and project expeditionary power.   They also serve as an essential link in supporting the family members left behind.  Secretary Rumsfield established several goals in Facilities Sustainment, Restoration, and Modernization (FSRM) for DoD installations.  Our FY 2004 budget request addresses four primary goals in this area.  The first goal is to eliminate inadequate family housing by FY 2007 through a combination of Basic Allowance for Housing increases, Public Private Ventures, and traditional military construction.  Our plans and budget request are on track to achieve this goal.  The second goal in the area of infrastructure is to improve the quality of our barracks.  This budget supports the elimination of inadequate barracks by 2005.  Our permanent waiver to build barracks to the "2 Marines per room with a shared bathroom" (2 x 0) standard, and the increased level of investment requested in the FY 2004 budget allows us to completely modernize our single Marine quarters by FY 2012.  The last two goals are to fund our facilities on a sixty-seven year replacement cycle by 2008 and to attain a C-2 readiness rating in all facility-type areas by 2010.  As currently budgeted, we will achieve our sixty-seven year goal by 2008 and attain C-2 readiness by 2013 - a significant improvement over previous years.  Overall, our intent is to have an infrastructure that minimizes redundancy, maximizes efficiency, is cost-effective, environmentally sound, and capable of supporting our Marines, their families, and the training and exercises of our weapons systems and operational concepts. 

Initiatives are on going for two essential facilities in Florida, which will directly contribute to the future readiness of our deploying forces - Blount Island in Jacksonville and Eglin Air Force Base.   Blount Island, a national asset, plays a vital role in the readiness of the Marine Corps' Prepositioned equipment embarked aboard Maritime Prepositioning Ships and will continue to do so for years to come.   We must acquire Blount Island to ensure its availability for long-term national strategic use.  This budget funds the second of two phases of our planned acquisition of Blount Island in FY 2004.  Your support for this initiative will enable the Marine Corps to transform our Maritime Prepositioning Force into true sea based assets. 

Eglin Air Force Base is currently undergoing an environmental assessment and study as a potential replacement for training previously conducted in Vieques.  Eglin has the established training ranges, quality of training support, and proximity to the sea, which could potentially provide Naval Expeditionary Forces with the critical readiness training they need prior to deployment.  Eglin's capabilities, location, and tenant commands provide the opportunity to facilitate joint training between Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, Army and Special Operations Forces.  Development of an expeditionary force training capability at Eglin will support the Secretary of Defense's vision and direction for training transformation and the development of a Joint National Training Capability.  This type of training will be critical to Naval expeditionary force combat-readiness.  The Marine Corps plans to execute two ten-day training exercises with a Marine Expeditionary Unit at Eglin each year.  These exercises will include a variety of scenarios such as amphibious landings, raids, mechanized operations, helicopter operations, and live fire and maneuver exercises.  Your support for both of these initiatives - the acquisition of Blount Island, and training at Eglin Air Force Base - is key to our future readiness. 

Equipment

The Marine Corps' ability to deploy our combat ready forces and sustain them is due to the dedication of our Marines and the investments you have supported for equipment materiel and spare parts.  For much of the last decade, we deferred equipment modernization to maintain near term readiness.  As a result, much of our primary equipment and weapons systems, such as the M198 howitzer, 5-ton truck, reverse osmosis water purification unit, CH-46E and CH-53D helicopters, and KC-130 aerial refuelers are rapidly approaching or have already exceeded, their programmed service lives.  We have and will continue to take maximum advantage of Service Life Extension Programs (SLEPs), which enable us to improve the reliability and availability of existing systems, as we develop and field future replacements.  Ultimately, investing in modernization and transformational systems will relieve us of the ever increasing resource expenditures - manpower and funding - required to ensure the maintenance and warfighting readiness of our aging equipment.  Until then, our Marines will continue to maintain them in the highest state of readiness possible. 

Our Marines are equipped and trained to operate in a chemically or biologically contaminated environment.  Each Marine is protected by a Saratoga suit and M40A1 field protective mask as standard issue.  Our Saratoga suits provide the same level of protection as the Joint Service Lightweight Integrated Suit Technology (JSLIST) suit, and we have sufficient stocks to issue three Saratoga suits and field protective mask filters to each Marine.  Our forces have the ability to detect the presence of a biological agent on the battlefield, through the use of Portal Shield Detection Systems, Dry Filter Units and hand held assays.  Our major installations and ground maneuver elements are also supported by specially equipped "Fox" vehicles, which are able to detect chemical agents in the atmosphere or on the ground.  We also maintain chemical detection capability down to the unit level with Chemical Agent Monitors (CAM's), Automatic Chemical Agent Detection Alarms (ACADA's) and the Remote Sensing Chemical Agent Alarm.  We are actively developing new technologies to perform large-scale decontamination on personnel and equipment.  If required, our forces will be ready and able to prevail in a contaminated combat environment.       

Modernization/Transformation

Our modernization and transformation program efforts are vital to future readiness.   The Marine Corps' major modernization programs include: the Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement (MTVR), the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), Lightweight 155mm Howitzer (LW155), and KC-130J aerial refuelers.  There are many other modernization programs spread across all elements of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force.  Transformation programs in this budget include: the MV-22 Osprey, the Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing Joint Strike Fighter, and the Advanced Amphibious Assault Vehicle (AAAV).  [rkp2]  

Our forces, when embarked aboard Naval expeditionary warships, provide the Nation with flexible, forward-presence, and deployed crisis response forces.  They also provide a truly unparalleled expeditionary forcible-entry capability.  As part of the joint Naval effort, the Marine

Corps will remain capable of getting to the fight rapidly with sustainment to decisively deter or defeat adversaries who try to impose their will on our country or its allies.  The Marine Corps supports the requirement for twelve LPD-17s and a modified LHD-8 ("Plug Plus") ship design in FY 2007 to replace existing LHA class ships.  We will, through analysis of alternatives and on-going studies, evaluate the adequacy of the R&D and SCN funding for the development of ships for the LHA follow-on replacements.

Equally important to the modernization and transformation of the seabase, is the development of Maritime Prepositioning Forces.  The leases of our current fleet of Maritime Prepositioning Ships (MPS) are slated for complete buy-out by FY 2006, prior to the expiration of their leases in fiscal years 2009 through 2011.  Advanced Maritime Prepositioning capabilities, High Speed Vessel platforms, and new lighterage vessels will significantly increase the strength and flexibility of our sea-based expeditionary forces.  The marriage of a modern amphibious fleet with Maritime Prepositioning Ships, capable of hosting at-sea arrival and assembly of forces, will eliminate the requirement for access to secure ports and airfields, and give our Nation an unmatched asymmetrical advantage in projecting power.

In the field of logistics, we are re-engineering our combat service support to the Operating Forces.   We call this transformation effort the Integrated Logistics Capability.  It was created to improve the Marine Corps' logistics responsiveness, to reduce our logistical footprint ashore, and to provide the support needed to enable Operating Forces to respond to the full range of crises in the 21^st century.  To date, this effort is redefining and realigning supply, maintenance and battlefield distribution to integrate today's disparate and cumbersome processes.  

As we continue to modernize and transform into a more capable Marine Corps, we acknowledge that transformation is an ongoing process and not an end-state.  With your help, we are on a track that will result in the simultaneous arrival of a number of major programs.  If realized, this will profoundly modernize and transform the Corps to dramatically enhance our ability to defeat America's prospective enemies.

Conclusion

As the Nation's premier "Expeditionary Force in Readiness," your Corps represents a certain force in an uncertain world.  Our forces are postured and prepared for whatever missions they may be assigned by the President.  They represent the current product of 227 years of expeditionary tradition, enabled by your strong support.  We are constantly evolving our warfighting capability through continuous transformation, rigorous training and investment in our Marines and their equipment.  The transformational changes being implemented today are the legacy for the future readiness of your Marine Corps. 

We are very grateful for the additional funding provided in the FY 2003 Omnibus Appropriations Bill.  That funding provided a measure of relief to those programs, which are currently bearing the costs of the Global War on Terrorism.  Thank you for your timely action.  That said, our contingency requirements are significant, and they greatly exceed the funding provided.  We request your continued support of our critical requirements, which enable us to give to you and the Nation, our eternal commitment to warfighting excellence.  Thank you for the opportunity to present testimony on the readiness of the Marine Corps.