WASHINGTON (Reuters) - america Marine Corps will try and hold funding for its plans to modernize its fleet of getting older aircraft and ships inside the economic 2017 protection budget, the commandant of the Marine Corps said on Thursday.
General Robert Neller informed Reuters on the sidelines of an event in Washington that there was a distinction between the finances predicted on Feb. 9 and what the Marines desired.
"we are going to do the whole thing to shield our modernization," stated Neller, who took command of the Marine Corps last 12 months. He did not name any applications mainly that could face cuts, however stated every body needed to “pay a touch bit to make the numbers.”
Neller stated that budgets required a compromise, together with what number of Joint light Tactical automobiles, made via Oshkosh Corp, might be purchased.
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Tuesday the Pentagon would searching for a $582.7 billion protection price range subsequent 12 months and reshape spending priorities to reflect a new strategic environment marked by means of Russian assertiveness and the upward thrust of Islamic country militants.
Neller said the finances might see cash for schooling and protection of facilities.
“The drawback of having fantastic facilities is now you have to maintain them and then we have were given antique centers that we need to put off," Neller said.
In a speech in California on Wednesday, Carter also stated readiness and training for the Marines would be addressed inside the budget. Carter stated that when years of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which required counter terrorism training, the Marine Corps would educate for a much wider range of needs.
The issue was highlighted on Thursday by way of Lieutenant fashionable Jon Davis, the pinnacle Marine in fee of aviation, who informed a U.S. Residence of Representatives armed services committee hearing that pilots were not receiving sufficient flying time.
"they may be no longer as excellent as they should be," Davis said.