Compass Points - Money Talks
Congress reduces NSM funding
Compass Points - Money Talks
Congress reduces NSM funding
June 13, 2024
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Money talks. There are many sayings about the importance of money, including:
-- Put your money where your mouth is.
-- Money talks and bulls***t walks
The US Congress has two fundamental jobs: money and oversight. Congress allocates funding for worthwhile government projects and then keeps close watch over how the money is spent.
What Congress pays for is what Congress thinks is important.
What Congress pays close attention to is what Congress thinks is important.
Beginning with the Commandant's Planning Guidance in the summer of 2019, the Marine Corps made a sharp turn in a new direction. Instead of focusing on being America's global 9-1-1 rapid response force, the Marine Corps said it would begin to focus more on being a smaller, regional, defensive force that would sit on Pacific islands waiting to fire a missile if one of China's military ships sailed by.
This was an astounding change for the Marine Corps and has remained controversial since 2019. The island approach, however, never received much detailed oversight from Congress because the Marine Corps did not go to Congress and ask for more money to add the island missile mission to proven Marine Corps capabilities. Instead, Marine senior leaders stayed under Congressional radar by not requesting additional funding. Instead of getting funding to add additional new capabilities, the Marine Corps cut proven capabilities.
Years have gone by now. The idea of putting small missile units of Marines on islands in the Pacific that some regarded initially as innovative, now seems old and tired. In the years that followed, Russia invaded Ukraine and Hamas invaded Israel. Very difficult ground fighting continues to this day.
If the Marines on Pacific islands with missiles still seemed like a powerful idea, Congress would be funding it quickly and generously, but it is not.
The latest report on the ongoing negotiations on the National Defense Authorization Act reports that Congress is cutting $42 million from the Marine Corps' request for the Naval Strike Missile (NSM). In addition, procurement funding for the small logistic ship, the Medium Landing Ship (LSM) is on hold once again.
Both the NSM and the LSM are critical pieces of the Marine Corps Pacific Island plan. If the small Marine missiles units on Pacific islands were so important to stopping China in the Pacific, Congress would be spraying out funding for the Marine priorities, the NSM and the LSM. Lack of funding speaks loudly about the lack of importance of the two projects.
The Air Force may have learned from the Marine Corps' struggles. The Air Force says it now wants to do its own radical reorganization to prepare to go to war with China. Unlike the Marine Corps, though, the Air Force is asking for more money from Congress. Congress is not convinced of the new Air Force plan. Congress is "skeptical." Perhaps Congress is skeptical about the Air Force's radical China plan, because Congress is beginning to see that US military readiness has been harmed by the Marine Corps' radical plan.
Breaking Defense is reporting on the ongoing controversy:
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Following the Air Force’s plans to “reoptimize” the
service for competition with China, appropriators said they
remain “skeptical of how the Air Force is pursuing a modern
force.” The committee thus instructs the service to keep
lawmakers abreast of major developments with initiatives like
the service’s budding Integrated Capabilities Command and
requires the Air Force secretary to submit a notification ahead
of any reorganizations and regularly submit reports providing
status updates after the fact.
-- Breaking Defense
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If only Congress starting back in 2019 had required the Marine Corps to "submit a notification ahead of any reorganizations and regularly submit reports providing status updates" maybe the Marine Corps would not have done such damage to its own contingency response units, equipment, and capabilities.
In the years since 2019 and the first introduction of placing small Marine missiles units on Pacific islands, how is the island plan progressing? Progress is hard to find on some fundamental pieces. There is still no Pacific nation willing to agree to let US Marines set up permanent missile sites on their soil. In addition, funding for the supply of Marine Naval Strike Missiles is being cut. Finally, not even one Landing Ship Medium has been built in the five years since 2019.
What has happened since 2019 is that the Marine Corps has cut is own contingency response capabilities. The Marine Corps has cut all or some of armor, artillery, air, combat breaching and bridging, infantry battalions, snipers, MPs and more. The latest news is that the MV-22 Osprey may be grounded again for another year or more. The combined arms Marine Corps needs the Osprey. The Marine Corps needs to upgrade itself as well. The Marine Corps still talks about being the Nation's premier crisis response 9-1-1 force, but talk is cheap. Failure to prepare is expensive.
The US Congress has two fundamental jobs: money and oversight. Congress allocates funding for worthwhile government projects and then keeps close watch over how the money is spent on crucial projects.
What Congress pays for is what Congress thinks is important.
What Congress pays close attention to is what Congress thinks is important.
The Marine Corps needs to stop just talking about being the Nation's 9-1-1 force and go to Congress and request more funding now to upgrade, enhance, and restore the Marine Corps' global, combined arms, response force. The clock is ticking. Crises are erupting around the globe. The Marine Corps is allowing itself to be pushed more and more to the sidelines. The Nation needs its full strength, combined arms Marine Corps. It will take Congress to restore combined arms capabilities that have been degraded and divested. It will take more money. But, as always, money talks.
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Breaking Defense - 06/11/2024
House appropriators spending bill report shows key changes across procurement, R&D
Funding tables show the detailed changes House appropriators make in their $833 billion version of the FY25 spending bill, with big cuts to programs like the Air Force's beleaguered Sentinel ICBM.
By Michael Marrow, Valerie Insinna, Justin Katz and Theresa Hitchens
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Marine Times – 08/14/2024
Here’s how the Marine Corps should have approached stand-in forces
By Brig. Gen. Jerry C. McAbee (ret)
(repost):
cfrog
Jun 4
I got this info confidentially. Apparently, this is what actually happened to put the USMC in it's current position:
At the Friday night DoD poker game, where the services play for who gets what, the USMC got up to use the head. When he returned, he got worried:
USMC: Hey! Did you guys look at my cards?
USN: No brother, we're family. (Raises bet...a lot)
USA: Nope. (Matches the raise)
USAF: Not me, buddy. (Matches also)
USSF: 404 not found. (Matches)
SOCOM: (just stares...and matches)
JCS: Relax Marine Corps, it's all good. You're doing fine. Like you say, divest to invest. Now I am going to call and you are going to throw that pair of Aces on the table along with the rest of the hot garbage you're holding.
Re MTBSW! I shared it on X!