Already, the defense secretary has signaled that he is inclined to cancel the Marines' top ground force modernization program - the ExpeditionaryFightingVehicle (EFV).
The canceled ExpeditionaryFightingVehicle would have achieved high speed in the water by using a planing design that enabled the vehicle to ride on top of the sea.
It also ganged up on the Marine Corps with Secretary Gates to kill a desperately needed ExpeditionaryFightingVehicle that would have delivered warfighters through the surf onto hostile beaches.
The vehicle in question is called the ExpeditionaryFightingVehicle, and it is quite impressive three times the water speed of the vehicle it will replace, and twice the armor.
That brings me to the politics surrounding the ExpeditionaryFightingVehicle, which present something of a case study in how senior policymakers must approach proposals to kill or cut back big weapons programs.
Its future means of performing amphibious assaults (the ExpeditionaryFightingVehicle), its principal airborne assault vehicle (the V-22 Osprey) and the backbone of its dedicated ground-support aviation for decades to come (the F-35) would all be eliminated or rendered unaffordable.