Compass Points - Comfortable?
Comfortable questions from Congress
Compass Points - Comfortable?
Comfortable questions from Congress
May 15, 2026
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It is spring in Washington, DC and amid rainy mornings and beautiful sunny afternoons, senior US military officers troop to capitol hill to provide Congress with updates. To outsiders, it sounds fearsome. Senior generals and admirals being relentlessly grilled by sharp eyed members of Congress who dig into the details of military readiness? The reality is very different. The chairs in the hearing rooms are comfortable and the questions are just as comfortable. The military reps basically say the same thing every year: we have some shortcomings but basically everything is good, we just need more money for certain programs. Congress nods and says, ‘thanks for stopping by.’
Even when a military service gets off track in some area, Congress is reluctant to be too critical because in criticizing a military program, it would be criticizing itself. How did the service or program get so far off track if Congress was supervising?
The military posture statements are printed on crisp white paper -- the aide carries two backup copies -- and are read in earnest monotones. Many deficiencies are papered over. Perhaps members of Congress would dig in with more detailed questions, if deficiencies were not carefully glossed over in vague subordinate clauses.
Just one of too many examples.
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The Naval Strike Missile (NSM), fired from the Navy-Marine Corps Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS), provides a critical capability for surface warfare with a range exceeding 100 nautical miles. This ground-based anti-ship missile system, capable of launching from a highly mobile platform, enhances the Marine Corps’ ability to disrupt enemy maritime operations across large areas of the Indo-Pacific. NMESIS has completed multiple successful live-fire events, reinforcing the Corps’ role in sea-denial operations.
-- General Smith, Congressional posture statement, 12 May 2026
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The NMESIS has “multiple successful live-fire events”? That must sound comforting to unsuspecting members of the Congressional defense committees. They should dig into the details, however, and ask, was the Marine NMESIS fired at the recent Balikatan 2026?
Balikatan is a massive annual exercise in the Philippines that just concluded with the participation not only of US military units, but also military units from many other nations. If the NMESIS is being test fired all the time, was the Marine NMESIS test fired at Balikatan 2026? Even if Congressional staffers were sent to dig into the details, it would be hard to learn the facts.
A PACOM news release seems to say that US Marines participated in a live-fire event.
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APORAWAN, Philippines — Over 500 service members from the United States, Philippines, Australia, and New Zealand successfully coordinated fires from the land and air to defeat a simulated adversary attack as part of Exercise Balikatan 2026, April 27.
During the counter-landing live-fire training, forces demonstrated their ability to sense the actions of a dynamic notional enemy, make collective real-time decisions, and coordinate an array of fire from missile systems, fighter aircraft, mortars, and machine guns. They combined advanced intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities with lethal firepower through a combined, multi-domain command and control node to think, decide, and act as one team.
“We can talk about all the capabilities we have, but the integration of those capabilities is the cornerstone of how this is done right,” said U.S. Marine Corps Col. G. J. Flynn III, commanding officer of Marine Rotational Force – Darwin.
-- PACOM Media
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Do all those good words mean the Marines live fired their NMESIS? No, that did not happen. The Marines participated in a life fire event by standing and watching while the US Army’s 5th Battalion, 3rd Artillery Regiment, 7th Infantry Division live fired their HIMARS.
Another report on Balikatan 2026 gives great credit to the US Marines and the NMESIS.
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The deployment preparation of a U.S. Marine Corps Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System during Balikatan 2026 marks a new stage in how Washington and Manila are using the Philippine archipelago to support distributed maritime deterrence. Reported by the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service on April 25, 2026, the movement of the NMESIS launcher from Cagayan North International Airport in Lal-lo toward Itbayat places a mobile land-based anti-ship missile capability close to the Luzon Strait, one of the most strategically exposed maritime corridors in the Indo-Pacific. The operation reflects a shift from traditional large-base defense toward dispersed, mobile, and survivable strike nodes capable of supporting sea-denial missions across the First Island Chain.
The imagery of a NMESIS launcher being prepared for loading onto a U.S. Air Force C-130J Super Hercules of the 733rd Air Mobility Squadron illustrates the operational concept behind the U.S. Marine Corps’ littoral force redesign. Instead of concentrating combat power in predictable locations, the U.S. force posture is increasingly built around rapid movement, expeditionary logistics, and precision fires from austere terrain. For the 3rd Littoral Combat Team and the 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment, this type of deployment tests the ability to move an anti-ship missile system by air, position it on island terrain, connect it to wider targeting networks, and preserve its survivability through mobility and concealment.
-- Army Recognition
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If the Marine NMESIS is ready for the fight now, why did the Marine need to transport the NMESIS to Balikatan using Air Force aircraft? It would have been good training for Marine air to move the NMESIS.
Once delivered, despite all the good words about the NMESIS, it did not fire. Has the NMESIS ever fired? Marine Corps records indicate the NMESIS was fired on 15 August 2021, at the Pacific Missile Range in Hawaii.
Apparently since then, the NMESIS has never proven its ability to both shoot and move in the same exercise. The NMESIS has never been put in place on a remote island, along side the Marine GATOR radar system, and fired and hit a water target. Then, Marines immediately load up all the radars, missiles and gear, move to another island, and fire again. Then, do it a third time in a third location. It is claimed that this is how the NMESIS will be used. Shoot. Move to another location. Shoot again. Move to another location. Even though this is how the NMESIS will be used in war, it has never demonstrated the actual capability.
That detail about the NMESIS is not in the Marine posture statement to Congress.
When senior military leaders make it through Congressional testimony with few hard questions, that is not a victory. Among all the military services, leaders of Marines should be less practiced in playing the game, and more willing to kick over checker board.
Testimony before Congress should be like a Marine uniform inspection. Fall out now in Service A. The inspecting officer does not just glance over the assembled ranks and say, ‘looks okay.’ No, the inspecting officer, with small ruler in hand, proceeds Marine by Marine, measuring, questioning, and inspecting every detail. The harder the inspection, the more worthwhile. Inspectors with the most exacting standards help Marines the most.
Comfortable chairs and comfortable questions? That might seem like success to some, but Marines are not seeking what is comfortable. Marines hold themselves to higher standards. Where is the senior Marine leader who will not speak in carefully modulated tones, but will bluntly bark,
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We are a combined arms, fighting force -- not a missile force. We need more technology, not to help us become what we are not, but to help us become better warfighters. We don’t have enough amphibious ships or pre-positioning ships. That is not all the Navy’s fault, it is our fault too for taking our eye off the ball. We have no tanks and damn little cannon artillery, but with your help, we are going to fix both starting now.
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No senior Marine has said anything like that to Congress — yet.
Still, a Marine can dream.
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Army Recognition = 04/28/2026
U.S. Deploys NMESIS Coastal Missile System to the Philippines to Reshape First Island Chain Defense Posture.
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PACOM Media - 04/27/2026
Multinational Forces Validate Defensive Readiness During Balikatan 2026 Counter-Landing Training
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The keystone problem is a gross lack of integrity so egregious that it exposes virtually the entire senior leadership to the charge of outright lying over the last 7 years. Lying to Congress, the media, allies and Marines. Every one of these officers has violated their oath. This would make a used car salesman or carnival barker blush. Would any rational person accept this level of deception from their real estate agent, doctor, grocer, car dealer, teachers, police department, fire department or children? Of course not. There is simply no way to spin this. It is high time for charges under the UCMJ. ACCOUNTABILITY!!!
The idea of putting isolated and widely dispersed small units (SIFs) along choke points and islands throughout the First Island Chain is a fatally flawed concept. It does not matter how many NMESIS/NSM batteries are operational (currently less than 2 of 14 planned); how full the magazines are; how much Congress supports the concept; or how much money is thrown at it. Isolated and widely dispersed SIFs are not survivable, sustainable, or effective. Task organized forces built around F-35s, HIMARS, GATOR radars, etc. are more effective than purpose-built forces that are largely duplicative and inferior to other services’ capabilities. The Commandant knows this, which is why he has not stood up the third MLR and is slowly bringing back capabilities previously discarded. His renewed emphasis on amphibious shipping and forward deployed amphibious forces is a forceful acknowledgement that Marines must be offensive, globally responsive expeditionary forces in readiness to retain relevancy. EABO/MLR/SIF as stand-alone concepts will die a natural death. We are already witnessing it. A future Commandant will deliver the coup de grace.