Tina Smith: “since fiscal year 1995 the Senate has annually sponsored in its defense authorization bill a program for enhancement of…”

“since fiscal year 1995 the Senate has annually sponsored in its defense authorization bill a program for enhancement of the Marine Corps maritime prepositioning force by the purchase and conversion of three ships from the world market. An additional ship for each of the three Marine Corps prepositioned squadrons will allow them to carry extra materiel, including an expeditionary airfield, a fleet hospital, a Navy mobile construction battalion equipment set, Marine Corps command element equipment, and additional sustainment supplies. The lessons learned from the Marine Corps' experience in Desert Storm demonstrate that having this additional equipment afloat on a continuing basis will provide our warfighting commanders with much greater flexibility when they choose to employ Marine Corps units. For 3 years the Senate Armed Services Committee has intensively studied various options for providing MPF enhancement for the Marine Corps. The objective has been an affordable program that will deliver an adequate capability at the lowest cost to the taxpayer. The committee has consistently concluded that a program for purchase and modest conversion of existing ships represents the best means to achieve this goal. However, the committee has avoided any temptation to foreclose possible alternatives.”