Covering the Base

Two Ohio lawmakers announced last week that the Marine Corps plans to keep vital vehicle machinery stationed at the Joint Services Manufacturing Center in Lima, OH, thereby abandoning plans to move the gear to a service-run facility and protecting the combat vehicle industrial base.

Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) and Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), members of the House and Senate armed services committees, released a statement on June 22 heralding the Marines' decision to maintain their hull machining line located at the Lima plant.

“Following the Obama Administration’s cancellation of the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) Program, the Marine Corps' program manager began reviewing the future use of all EFV-associated equipment procured as part of that program,” the statement reads. “Although there was a preliminary determination to relocate that equipment to a Marine Corps facility, further consideration determined that this was not a time-sensitive decision and the disposition of this equipment will not happen until after the issue can be more thoroughly studied.”

The Marines are also scheduled to conduct a business-case analysis that will allow them to compile a cost/benefit analysis focused on maintaining the defense industrial base, according to the statement.

Portman and Turner have been lobbied hard by General Dynamics, which runs the government-owned and contractor-operated JSMC, to keep the facility's production lines warm in spite of Army plans to pause spending on the Abrams tank, which is built there.

According to the statement, Portman and Turner “worked with the Marine Corps to ensure proper consideration was given” to the matter before a final decision was made to relocate the hull machining line.

“We’d like to thank Senator Portman, Congressman Turner, and the entire Ohio delegation for their constant work on behalf of the Joint Services Manufacturing Center at Lima,” said Keith Deters, the plant manager who JSMC for General Dynamics. “They know that the work done there is important to the defense of this country and helps ensure our manufacturing base remains strong.”