The United States Navy

MARINE CORPS PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT

The Commandant of the Marine Corps conducts a parallel but separate programming process. Two of the three tiers responsible for Marine Corps program development decisions are at the senior level. They include the Executive Steering Group (ESG), chaired by the Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps (ACMC), and the Program Review Group (PRG), chaired by the Deputy Chief of Staff for Programs and Resources. The third tier is the Program Objective Memorandum Working Group (PWG), a standing cross-sponsor/cross-proponent committee that is chaired by the Program Development Officer. At Headquarters Marine Corps, the Deputy and Assistant Chiefs of Staff and the heads of the special staff sections oversee the POM process within specific sponsorship areas, including Aviation; Installations and Logistics; Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence; Manpower and Reserve Affairs; and Marine Corps Systems Command.

The Commanding General, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, is the Fleet Marine Force (FMF) proponent responsible for identifying and assigning priorities to new requirements using the Combat Development System (CDS) for procurement of Marine Corps items.

Marine Corps programming is the bridge between planning and budgeting. It is separated into program assessment and program development phases. The assessment phase examines the existing program from both a warfighting and capabilities requirements perspective. Sponsors and proponents assess mission areas to identify deficiencies and ensure adherence to current programming guidance. This phase culminates in a summary assessment within the Navy's IBR process. Using the results of the assessment phase, the CMC formulates final programming guidance for developing a POM that corrects identified deficiencies and ensures full compliance with higher-level programming and fiscal directives.

The development phase, conducted by the Deputy Chief of Staff for Programs and Resources, is a process that produces a recommended program within available resources reflective of the Commandant's guidance. Program Evaluation Groups (PEGs) are convened with appropriation sponsors and proponents to review and prioritize program initiatives based on their relative benefits to the Marine Corps. The PWG then develops a draft program based on priorities received from the PEGs and options that provide the best fit between requirements and resources. The draft POM is then reviewed by the PRG and finally the Executive Steering Group. Upon approval, the ESG forwards the recommended program to the Commandant who, after review and approval, submits it to the Secretary of the Navy.

NAVY DEPARTMENT POM

The Secretary reviews Navy and Marine Corps programs, reconciles any competing priorities, and ensures departmental guidance has been met. After approval by the Secretary, the two service POMs are merged to become the Department of the Navy Program Objective Memorandum, which is submitted to the Secretary of Defense.

NAVY PROGRAM VISION

The Navy's strategies, doctrines, plans, programs, and assets are being tailored to ensure the service can meet the challenges of peace, crisis, and war in the next century. For peacetime presence and crisis-response operations, Navy leaders are focusing on fielding capabilities for robust forward presence, enhanced conventional and strategic deterrence, sea and area control, power projection, and force deployment and sustainment. For war, they are working to ensure that the Navy-Marine Corps Team has all capabilities needed to exploit the maritime battlespace through maneuver, to break the enemy's will, to destroy his military infrastructure, and to defeat his forces in battle. In all cases, the fundamental challenge is to assess future needs dispassionately and objectively, to embrace and foster technological and operational innovation, to devise doctrine and tactics that make sense in the new strategic and operational environment, and to fund the necessary force structure that gives naval expeditionary forces the most decisive impact for the least cost and at minimum risk.

The Navy's essential contributions to American security and regional stability and peace - forward presence, deterrence, sea and area control, and power projection — will not change. But the value of the Navy to the nation can be increased dramatically by providing the best hardware — ships, aircraft, weapons, and systems — and the finest, most highly skilled, and dedicated people to do what must be done: to ensure that the Navy of today and the next century can safeguard vital American interests and to protect our citizens and friends in what looks to be a most unfriendly world.

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