Marine Corps' annual investment plan sees 60 percent participation growth

This year's Marine Corps technology investment road map for industry and Defense Department organizations saw a 60 percent increase in collaboration from across the military's science and technology enterprises, according to a Marine Corps official.

The increased participation in the service's 2018 Advanced Technology Investment Plan, which was released last month, was one of the biggest changes from last year's ATIP, Michael Halloran, director of science and technology for program executive office land systems, told Inside the Navy in an April 25 interview.

Specifically, Halloran said the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory and the Navy's research labs identified more relevant projects and capabilities than last year.

Halloran also said the PEO's goal is to continue growing the visibility of the investment plan to include universities and other research organizations.

Organizations like the National Science Foundation and universities often have research projects that DOD could use but don't have "visibility into. The intent is to basically grow this [so] that everyone comes to play with their projects to meet the needs of the services," Halloran said.

One project included in this year's ATIP is a high-speed amphibious assault vehicle hull.

"To facilitate assault operations, the Marines need an amphibious vehicle that can quickly move troops and equipment between ships and the shore," the document said.

Further, current displacement hull-based assault vehicles do not meet the project's high-speed requirements, the document said.

Another focus of the investment plan is fuel efficiency for the Amphibious Combat Vehicle 1.1 as well as future vehicles.

"While relatively efficient, even the best vehicle turbodiesel engines have efficiencies of only 30 to 44 percent depending on operating condition," the document said. "Since the engine inefficiency is the largest energy loss, we will focus on scavenging waste energy from [the] power plant of the vehicle."

Although the effort is targeted at ACV 1.1, the document notes the plan's strategy for fuel efficiency has shown to increase efficiency for other large trucks by 5 percent.

"The technology that is developed within the proposed program will be transitioned to additional vehicles to improve fuel efficiency nationwide and to reduce the cost of the systems by using the economies of scale," the document said.

The investment plan is published annually to give industry and the Defense Department a sense of what technologies and capabilities the PEO is seeking.