Compass Points - Aim Higher
Time to get rounds out of the dirt.
Compass Points - Aim Higher
Time to get rounds out of the dirt.
October 29, 2024
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While the Air Force says, 'aim high,' sometimes Marines need to aim higher. If Marines at rifle qualification are hitting at the bottom of the target, they need to aim higher. If they are putting rounds in the dirt in front of the target, they need to aim much higher.
To aim higher includes finding more and better equipment and also includes finding better people. It is impossible to aim higher without more and better equipment and more and better senior leaders.
For example, the Standard Missile - 6, SM-6 is a critical part of the ability of the US Navy to intercept and destroy incoming enemy missiles and drones. In the last year in the Middle East alone, the US has launched more than 100 of the $1million interceptors. RTX, the US manufacturer of the SM-6 is able to manufacture only about 1 missile a day. With the heavy use of interceptor missiles in recent years, those less than 400 missiles annually cannot keep up with the needs of the US in the Middle East, in Europe, and in the Pacific. That is bad news. But the news gets worse. Those 400 missiles must supply not only the US but also 14 other nations.
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The heavy use of the Pentagon’s limited stockpile of missile interceptors is raising concerns about the ability of the U.S. and its allies to keep pace with unexpected, high demand created by the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine. The Pentagon worries it could run through its inventory faster than it can replace them, leaving the U.S. vulnerable in a potential conflict in the Pacific, analysts and officials said.
-- Wall Street Journal "Pentagon Runs Low On Air Defense Missiles"
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The need for more and better equipment is not limited to missiles and is not limited to the US Navy. Not only does the Navy need more missiles, it needs more ships, subs, aircraft, and much more. The Marine Corps needs to restore its global combined arms capabilities. As serious as these shortfalls in equipment are for both the Navy and Marine Corps and all the services, there is a shortfall even more pressing: leadership.
Retried Navy Captains, Jerry Hendrix & Brent Sadler have written a blueprint for the next president, "Restoring Our Maritime Strength." Beyond just equipment, the authors advocate a concentrated search for better senior leaders.
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Accordingly, the next Navy secretary and undersecretary should undertake a series of one-on-one interviews of current three- and fourstar admirals to determine their potential as wartime commanders and their readiness to execute an aggressive program of national maritime rejuvenation. If some are found wanting, they should be offered reassignment or retirement in grade without prejudice. Simultaneously, the five assistant secretaries of the Navy should survey the warfighting character of the Navy’s current two- or one-star admirals, as well as its senior captains, with an eye toward their potential for promotion to senior roles. When, in 1955, Secretary of the Navy Charles Thomas found Admiral Robert “Mick” Carney lacking in support for innovation and modernization, Thomas forced him into early retirement and selected Rear Admiral Arleigh Burke for promotion to admiral, naming him chief of naval operations (CNO) over the heads of 100 more-senior admirals. Burke ended up serving six years as CNO and was instrumental in helping the Eisenhower administration ready the Navy for a long-haul Cold War.
-- Jerry Hendrix & Brent Sadler
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When authors Jerry Hendrix & Brent Sadler advocate for new Navy leadership, they could be writing about the Marine Corps. In the coming months, the Marine Corps needs to aim higher. The Marine Corps needs to aim higher in the equipment needed to restore Marine Corps combined arms capabilities and aim higher in senior leadership. Compass Points thanks Captains Hendrix and Sadler for their authoritative blueprint that urges the Navy and Marine Corps and all military to aim higher. For the Marine Corps, it will take new leaders with a new vision to upgrade, enhance, and restore Marine Corps global crisis response.
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Wall Street Journal - 10/29/2024
Pentagon Runs Low On Air Defense Missiles
The large number of interceptors used to strike missiles and drones in the Middle East is raising concerns about U.S. military readiness in the Pacific
By Nancy A. Youssef and Gordon Lubold
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National Review - 10/24/2024
Restoring Our Maritime Strength
An agenda for the next president’s first hundred days
By Jerry Hendrix & Brent Sadler
Logistics runs a long trail from the resupply of ammunition on the FLOT all the way back to an industrial base that can
Produce and store the required assets for a long war with a peer competitor. To some extent DoD became enamored with just in time logistics so popular in civilian industry. COVID shot that full of holes.
The warehouse needs to make a comeback.
As weapons become increasingly sophisticated it takes longer to make them, longer to train people to maintain and operate them. We are talking about many months and often many years. If we compare production time and personnel training time ( not to even discuss collective training time) the time has increased ten fold. This tells even the village idiot that you need a deeper bench. The demand for expensive simulators grows greater.
Currently, in a “come as you are” war the US will be out of Schlitz very quickly. Not only are we too small, we could not replace losses or expenditures. While most human endeavors strive to be efficient, war requires effective. You can bet that the Chinese have done the math when we we run out of weapons platforms, ammunition and trained people.
Stalin made exactly these calculations vs Germany. If he needed five Soviet Divisions to destroy one German Division his math was simple. Attrition is math. After Hitler bogged down on the outskirts of Moscow his intelligence experts calculated that the Soviets would be able to put over 300 Divisions into the fight by spring. This exceeded the numbers destroyed July through December 1941. In fact the Soviets started to counterattack by Christmas and put 326 Divisions into play before spring.
If the Corps made the decision to modernize and reconstitute three MEF’s tomorrow I can not even estimate the time, cost and personnel training requirements before you could even consider collective unit training and exercises. It will be a multi year effort. Gen Berger’s damage to the Corps was significant and long term. Every day wasted to begin to rebuild and modernize is a direct threat to the very relevance of the Corps. I am not sure when we will reach rock bottom but both the Russians and Chinese are doing those calculations today. We are not.
The need for more and better equipment is not limited to missiles and is not limited to the US Navy. Not only does the Navy need more missiles, it needs more ships, subs, aircraft, and much more.
The Navy is having trouble recruiting. And they send ships out with 75-80% manning. The Navy needs to take a HARD look at all the shore billets. I would be willing to bet that a good 25-30% of the Navy is in shore-based commands (excluding aviation units and SEALs).
The Navy no longer has the giant repair shops where sailors learned advanceds skills ashore (motor rewind, valve rebuild, machining) having given those jobs up to civilians and contractors. So what exactly are they doing ashore? Filling a billet in one of the 223 Admirals the Navy currently has?
The have damned near an Admiral for every ship in the Fleet.