Justin Katz

2 weeks ago | breakingdefense.com | Justin Katz

MODERN DAY MARINE 2025 — Amphibious ship readiness remains far below the Marine Corps’ requirement and even further away from the combatant commanders’ demand — and the US Navy knows it. “I’ll be frank with you. We owe you a three-ship ARG [Amphibious Ready Group]. I owe you a three-ship ARG that’s ready to embark Marines and conduct the training cycle and deploy on schedule. I do not meet that requirement,” Acting Chief of Naval Operations Adm.

2 weeks ago | breakingdefense.com | Justin Katz

MODERN DAY MARINE 2025 — Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric Smith today urged the defense industrial base to keep their pitches for him narrowly tailored to the direction and priorities the service is highlighting — for everything else, funding will be sparse. “I’m interested in buying what I need, not buying what you’re selling,” he told attendees today at the Modern Day Marine Exposition in Washington, DC.

2 weeks ago | breakingdefense.com | Justin Katz

MODERN DAY MARINE 2025 — The US Marine Corps’s top requirements officer said he anticipates the service’s first Landing Ship Medium (LSM) will take four to five years to produce, a number he hopes to eventually accelerate. “We want it faster than that, but I think that that’s the realistic timeline in which the shipbuilders can make it,” Lt. Gen. Eric Austin, the service’s top requirements officer, told reporters on the sidelines of the Modern Day Marine Exposition in Washington, DC, Wednesday.

2 weeks ago | breakingdefense.com | Justin Katz

WASHINGTON — The Navy has awarded a long-awaited contract modification to General Dynamics Electric Boat, and major subcontractor HII, for the construction of two Virginia-class submarines appropriated through fiscal 2024 funding, according to a service statement. The contract modification awarded to EB is worth $12.4 billion and has a total value of $17.1 billion if all options are exercised.

2 weeks ago | breakingdefense.com | Justin Katz

MODERN DAY MARINE 2025 — The program manager for the Marine Corps’s new heavy lift helicopter on Tuesday floated the idea of designing modularized payloads that could easily slot into the aircraft and outfit it with varying capabilities. “[I’m] thinking revolutionized roll-on, roll-off, cargo containers purpose built for the inside of the 53K,” Col. Kate Fleeger told attendees at the Modern Day Marine Exposition in Washington, DC.