The Marines' Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV): Background and Issues for Congress

The Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle EFV is an armored amphibious vehicle program that originated two decades ago to replace the 1970s-era Amphibious Assault Vehicle AAV. Like current AAVs, the EFV is designed to roll off a Navy amphibious assault ship, move under its own power to the beach, and cross the beach and operate inland. The EFV has experienced a variety of developmental difficulties, resulting in significant program delays and cost growth. The EFV is currently in its second systems design and development SDD phase attempting to improve the EVFs overall poor reliability and performance that it demonstrated during its 2006 operational assessment. If the EFV passes the current SDD in early 2011, it is expected to begin initial production if DOD has not cancelled the program and if it is fully funded. The improvised explosive device IED threat that has plagued operations in Iraq and Afghanistan was not envisioned in 1988 when the EFV program was initiated. The EFVs low ground clearance and flat bottom make it particularly vulnerable to IEDs this has raised congressional concern that the EFV, as currently designed, would provide inadequate protection to transported Marines. Another change to the battlefield is the proliferation of longer-ranged, shore-based, antiship cruise missiles ASCMs which put the Navys amphibious ships disembarking EFVs at their 25-mile operating limit vulnerable to attack. These battlefield evolutions, as well as the EFVs program delays and rising costs, and the decision to acquire only 573 vehicles the original requirement was 1,025 have resulted in many defense experts and officials questioning the need for the EFV. Although some question the EFVs relevance, the General Accountability Office GAO reported that the EFV passed its December 2008 Critical Design Review CDR and, with 94 of the systems design models releasable, that EFVs critical technologies were mature and its design is stable.