USMC delays JLTV going with upgraded HUMVEE's?

Jonathan sent me this article (thanks guy) from Bloomberg News covering the JLTV/Humvee issue in the Marines. Read the article but as usual, below are the good bits...

The U.S. Marine Corps may scrap plans to buy new combat trucks until the late 2020s, officials told a U.S. House Armed Services panel.

The Joint Light Tactical Vehicle program is under scrutiny in Congress after a Senate panel recommended its termination in September. The Marine Corps plans to develop the new truck with the U.S. Army.

The Marine Corps said it may delay the JLTV and rely longer on its aging Humvee trucks because its priority is to buy new amphibious assault vehicles to ferry Marines from sea to land.

The biggest risk to the plan to modernize the combat vehicle fleet is “not program schedule but rather decision schedules,” Brigadier General Daniel O’Donohue, director of capabilities development, Brigadier General Frank Kelley, the head of Marine Corps Systems Command, and William Taylor, the land systems program executive officer, said today in a joint statement prepared for a hearing of the House Armed Services tactical air and land forces subcommittee.

If JLTV is delayed, “we lose an opportunity that we cannot readdress” until after the procurement of a new amphibious combat vehicle, or ACV, “in the late 2020s,” the officials said.

Ok.

Not an optimal solution but one I can live with.  This makes total sense.  If we get involved in another counter insurgency/nation building op then we can pull MRAPs out of storage.  This move could actually start the Marine Corps on the road to getting lighter.

Additionally it will place priorities on weapon systems.  We'll finally start telling policy makers what are must haves and what are nice to haves.  I believe that the JLTV falls into the nice to have end of the debate.

My opinion, but I just don't see how we can afford JLTV's right now...we have too many vehicles/aircraft to replace at one time.  Now if we could only get a handle on our rotary aviation problem...that's going to be the next headache!

NOTE:

I just used the BAE offering as an example of the upgraded HUMVEE.  I don't have a dog in the fight the only thing I would add to this competition is the requirement for a massively upgraded suspension...the TAK-4 from Oshkosh would seem ideal on any of the offerings, but hopefully all the competitors have that issue covered.