Compass Points - China & the 3 Lessons
The Marine Corps needs robust capabilities and support
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Compass Points appreciates reader comments on the March 23, 2023, post:
Compass Points - A Logistics Load of Words.
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CFROG commented sarcastically:
"In the future, thanks to the elimination of tanks and the addition of unmanned systems, foraging, and renewable energy, all powered by AI and Machine Learning, logistics will be no problem at all, barely an inconvenience" - did I get the FD 2030 brand talking points right?
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Polarbear commented:
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I have to agree with this criticism…MCDP-4 is an alligator mouth and no teeth. I especially take issue with the opening “Scenario - The Great Pacific War". Sitting on a remote Pacific Island waiting for the CCP to launch a single missile at your single airfield isn’t Maneuver Warfare. This scenario is more intone with France’s Maginot Line. You are not going to solve the Great Power Competition/War logistic problem with unmanned aircraft systems and teaching Marines how to forage and butch cows. Nor is a Marine H IMARS, equipped with anti-ship missiles, the answer especially when compared to the US Army’s new “Multi-Domain Task Force. "
Will someone please tell the [Marine Corps] and US NAVY to look at the WW2 Pacific War logistics effort (Beans, Bullets and Black Oil). It was massive! Strategic Transportation is USTRANSCOM’s problem. Theater logistics is a USINDOPACOM problem. Any war with China will be global. What the USINDOPACOM Combatant Commander and all the other Combat Commanders are going to need is combat power in the form of task organized MAGTFs. The sad part is that the CCP gets it where our military leadership does not. “Chinese Lessons Learned from the Pacific War” is an eye opener.
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Polarbear refers to the recent authoritative report prepared for the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments by Dr. Toshi Yoshihara, "CHINESE LESSONS FROM THE PACIFIC WAR."
The full 112-page report is summarized by Dr Yoshihara himself in his article, "China’s Lessons from the Pacific War and Implications for Future Warfighting" at Center for International Maritime Security (cimsec.org) 03/22/2023.
Dr. Yoshihara discusses how the Chinese have closely studied the lessons from the fighting between the United States and Japan across the Pacific in World War II. China sees that to win a war in the Pacific today, China must acquire the three critical advantages the United States held back then. For China today, there are three critical lessons from World War II.
Lesson One: Shore-Based Airpower
Lesson Two: Logistics
Lesson Three: Industrial Power
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According to Dr Yoshihara, China's army and navy are building their plans and capabilities around these three lessons from World War II. China puts themselves in the role of the United States: a large, mobile, logistics heavy, offensive force backed up by incredible manufacturing. They put the United States today in the role of the Japanese military in World War II: a smaller, less mobile, defensive force with less aviation, logistics, and manufacturing.
Proponents for Force Design 2030 have claimed for some time that Force Design 2030 will turn the Marine Corps into an ultra-modern missile force that will frighten China. Dr. Yoshihara shows that China is not frightened. They are preparing to win in the Pacific against a smaller, less mobile, force that has little aviation or logistical support. Where would the Chinese get the idea that United States military forces in the Pacific today are smaller, less mobile, with less aviation, and wholly inadequate logistics? Perhaps China has been reading the documents and plans of Force Design 2030?
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Center for International Maritime Security (cimsec.org) 03/22/2023
China’s Lessons from the Pacific War and Implications for Future Warfighting
by Toshi Yoshihara
Dr. Toshi Yoshihara is a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) and a former Professor of Strategy at the U.S. Naval War College. His latest book is Mao’s Army Goes to Sea: Island Campaigns and the Founding of China’s Navy (Georgetown University Press, 2022).
https://cimsec.org/chinas-lessons-from-the-pacific-war-and-implications-for-future-warfighting/
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Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (csbaonline.org) 2023
CHINESE LESSONS FROM THE PACIFIC WAR
IMPLICATIONS FOR PLA WARFIGHTING
by Toshi Yoshihara
Gen. Sheridan was a favorite of Gen. Grant in the Civil War. Grant could depend on Sheridan and his men to get the job done. Along with many of the professional attributes of a competent military commander was Gen. Sheridan's appreciation of the vital importance of logistics. He made sure his men and their animals were properly supported with food, clothing and equipment. The men, in turn, showed their appreciation of his leadership on the battlefield.
MCDP-4 Logistics, as signed off by Gen. Berger is a version of regenerative logistics described in an earlier USNI article. Regenerative logistics in plain language boils down to SIF Marines fending for themselves as they shoulder the demands of the combat environment. As has been stated earlier, what this policy boils down to is, "Marines have done so much with so little for so long, now they can do anything with nothing." That is not a Sheridan type logistics policy. SF
The other pub I mentioned is "Beans, Bullets, and Black Oil - The Story of Fleet Logistics Afloat in the Pacific During the Second World War". the US Navy set up a logistics service support group that provided for all fleet supplies (all classes) and repair facilities for all classes of ship from landing craft to aircraft carriers (and Battle Ships) Here is an electronic copy:
https://archive.org/details/beansbulletsbla00cart/page/n9/mode/2up