Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Budget Woes Threaten Marine Corps Plan to Defeat Enemy Drones | Military.com

Budget Woes Threaten Marine Corps Plan to Defeat Enemy Drones | Military.com: The Marine Corps has a strategy to counter enemy unmanned aerial systems, the service's number two officer confirmed Monday -- but if Congress can't pass the defense appropriations bill, it may be unable to pull the trigger.

Speaking at the Navy League's Sea-Air-Space conference, Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Glenn Walters said that if the Defense Department must instead contend with a yearlong continuing resolution, keeping funding flat, the service won't be able to execute its new plan to contend with emerging threats.

"People forget that the world just changes frequently now," Walters said. "We are seeing UAS threats in the Middle East right now that we had not seen last year, which means we didn't have a program for it last year. Which means if we have a CR this year, we can't use the money and counter the threat, and that's a challenge."