As we previously reported on 20 October, “the Army is looking at extending the range of its Precision Strike Missile to 800 KM.  This come following the dissolution of the INF Treaty which had limited ground based missile ranges to 500 KM.  The Army’s Precision Fires Cross-functional team will ill conduct its first flight tests from two competitor companies before the end of the year.  After the tests the Army will talk to the competitors about pursuing the extended ranges.”

This range extension is specifically oriented towards the ability to conduct operations in the Pacific from land based sites.  Recently Jane’s has reported that the Navy and the USMC are looking at developing shore based Naval Strike Missiles.  The concept is to take an existing sea based system and develop it so that it could be deployed on the land in support of USMC operations.

Inherent in the above are several inter-service conflicts.

• Do the naval strike missiles have the same capability as the Precision Strike Missiles that the Army is developing? If so are we seeing a duplication of effort and waste of resources?
• Is the island defense and land based missiles to assist in this an Army or USMC role and mission?

Presently the USMC does not contain any long range missile units while the Army does.  It would thus appear that this is an Army mission—not a USMC mission. BUT

It would also appear the Naval Strike Missile could at least provide a start point for the Army Precision Strike Missile.

We would hope that the secretary of Defense will have these conflicts in roles and systems examined to save resources.