Berger: Marine Corps won't ask Congress for 'a nickel more' in funding during force shift

The Marine Corps will not be asking Congress for more funding as it pursues its force re-design, Commandant Gen. David Berger said today.

Berger's Commandant's Planning Guidance, which was released earlier this year, calls for the service to invest in naval integration with lower costs and more lethal platforms. Under the guidance, the Marine Corps will move away from legacy capabilities used to fight land wars.

Berger said during this year's Modern Day Marine exposition that he walked the chairmen and ranking members of the defense-related committees in the House and Senate through his force re-design plan.

"I told them, 'We're not asking for a nickel more,'" he said. "The Marine Corps is not asking for any end strength increase, any money increase. We are going to re-shape ourselves for the future from within."

Berger said the changes have gotten more support from Congress than he anticipated.

"They very much respected that we weren't coming there with a tin cup to ask for more from Congress," he said. "But, I told them, if we go down this path and get rid of certain pieces of equipment, we shrink the size of the Marine Corps in order to generate the money we need, and you take that money, we're going to be a smaller, older Marine Corps. That, you don't want."

So far, Berger said Congress and Defense Secretary Mark Esper have protected the service's budget.

"So far, it’s in the right place," he said. "But we will need to see in the next two, three, four years how this all plays out."

Berger said that the service had to make hard decisions about what equipment to divest from during its transition.

"I'm convinced, 100%, that the risk of not doing anything, of incrementally updating our current systems, is much, much greater," the general said.

The Army has been very supportive of the Marine Corps' shift, Berger said. The Marine Corps is planning on giving its M1 Abrams tank battalions to the Army as part of its divestment, he added.