{"id":42277,"date":"2020-12-15T22:15:36","date_gmt":"2020-12-15T22:15:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2020\/12\/15\/high-ranking-house-lawmakers-press-to-restore-funds-to-marine-corps-long-range-fires-efforts\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:24:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:24:47","slug":"high-ranking-house-lawmakers-press-to-restore-funds-to-marine-corps-long-range-fires-efforts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/land\/2020\/12\/15\/high-ranking-house-lawmakers-press-to-restore-funds-to-marine-corps-long-range-fires-efforts\/","title":{"rendered":"High-ranking House lawmakers press to restore funds to Marine Corps long-range fires efforts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 A group of high-ranking House lawmakers are pressing to restore funds cut in the proposed fiscal 2021 defense spending bills for Marine Corps efforts to develop long-range precision fires capabilities<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cuts would derail the Marine Corps\u2019 plans to field ground-based, anti-ship missile and long-range, precision fires capabilities<\/a> needed urgently in the Indo-Pacific theater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wisconsin Republican Rep. Michael Gallagher, a House Armed Services Committee member with outspoken views on China, and House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., lead a list of 10 members of Congress who signed a letter addressed to House and Senate Appropriations Committee leadership, and obtained by Defense News, urging the conference committee working to finalize the FY21 Defense Appropriations Act to reconsider cuts to the Marines\u2019 LRPF programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Robert Wittman, R-Virginia, who is the ranking member on the HASC Seapower and Projection Forces subcommittee, and Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Missouri, who serves as the ranking member on the HASC Tactical Air and Land Forces subcommittee, also signed the Dec. 14 letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs you work to finalize the Defense Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year (FY) 2021, we write to express our deep concern regarding significant reductions to Marine Corps Long Range Precision Fire (LRPF) capabilities contained in both the House and Senate Defense Appropriations bills,\u201d they write. \u201cThese capabilities are at the heart of the Commandant\u2019s Planning Guidance, which calls for a revolutionary shift in the Marine Corps\u2019 mission from amphibious forcible entry to sea denial in contested littorals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The commandant, according to the members, has emphasized that ground-based LRPF with no less than 350 nautical mile ranges is what is required to be properly postured and to properly defend against an adversary like China in the Pacific region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPossession of such capabilities is not only an operational imperative based on the threat, but one that will increase options to commanders, and should radically alter our forward posture once fully realized,\u201d according to the commandant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To accomplish LRPF goals, the Marines have asked for funding in the FY21 defense budget request to develop launchers for a Ground-Based Anti-Ship Missile (GBASM) and LRPF and to procure associated long-lead missiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The budget request asks for $64 million for GBASM, $75 million for long-range fires and $125 million for long-lead missiles procurement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The House version of the appropriations bill cuts the long-range fires development effort by $25 million and halves the missile procurement to $62.5 million. The Senate version completely cuts missile procurement and cuts GBASM development down to just $15 million \u201ceffectively stopping the development of this critical capability,\u201d the letter reads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The House and Senate have justified the cuts, the letter points out, by citing \u201cunjustified new start,\u201d \u201cconcurrency,\u201d \u201cprogram adjustment,\u201d \u201cearly to need,\u201d and \u201cexcess to need,\u201d according to the letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPlainly, this could not be further from the truth,\u201d the members of Congress write, pointing to a test conducted this past September where Marines landed with High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS)<\/a> on le Shima in Japan and conducted a simulated precision-guided firing mission as evidence of the importance of such a ground-launched capability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Marine Corps is moving quickly on these efforts and plans to field an operational battery by FY23. \u201cThat requires the continued launcher development and missile procurement in FY21 to account for the missile long-lead times of approximately 24 months,\u201d the lawmakers argue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cutting the funding \u201cwould significantly disrupt\u201d the program\u2019s schedule and delay fielding of the capability until FY24 \u201cat the earliest,\u201d they write.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe People\u2019s Liberation Army does not need to wait until FY24 to deploy this capability,\u201d the lawmakers state. \u201cIt has an arsenal of thousands of similar missiles that are targeted at our ships, airfields and ports. This arsenal puts the United States on the wrong side of the cost curve. Simply put, our missiles, factoring in the cost of the plane or ship that deploys them, are far more expensive than theirs. This is a recipe for disaster both in war and in peacetime competition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group of lawmakers add that deploying such capability organic to the Marine Corps increases deterrence posture against China and improves regional security while providing a \u201cpersistent, credible threat\u201d to China that would force its investment in expensive defensive systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The capabilities would be a \u201crelatively inexpensive augmentation\u201d to air and maritime strike platforms \u2014 claimed to be more fiscally sustainable than ships or planes \u2014 and would create a \u201cmulti-domain targeting dilemma\u201d for the Chinese, they argue.<\/p>\n\n\n\t