Marines striving to avoid long-time reliance on contractors in field

More rapid fielding shouldn't mean extended reliance on contractors to service equipment in the field, a Marine Corps official said today.

Maj. Gen. Niel Nelson, assistant deputy commandant for combat development and integration, said at a conference in Washington he "absolutely" sees open architecture interoperability as a way to help the Marine Corps' Rapid Capabilities Office field technologies quicker.

But "what I don't want to have is something that goes to the field that doesn't go through acquisition and I get stuck with field service [representatives] forever," he said. "I can't afford that."

"What I need is a system that is integrated and that's what our acquisition process does," Nelson added.

Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller established the Rapid Capabilities Office last year to quickly experiment and field promising technologies.