Compass Points - Errant Missile
Stay tied closely to critical requirements
Compass Points - Errant Missile
Stay tied closely to critical requirements
July 27, 2023
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Reporter Joseph Trevithick in his recent article, "Marines’ Tomahawk Missile Launching Drone Truck Breaks Cover" details the Marine Corps' new Tomahawk missile battery. The Marine Corps has released photos of Battery A's leadership and equipment.
Compass Points has expressed doubts back in June about Battery A and the new Marine Corps missile,
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Is the Tomahawk what is meant by getting lighter and closer to our Naval roots? The Tomahawk is a long-range, all-weather, jet-powered, subsonic cruise missile. While it is a Navy missile, it is not part of the Marine Corps' Naval roots. The Marine Corps is a combined arms, offense focused, expeditionary force. A Tomahawk missile weighs around 3,000 pounds and is nearly 20 feet in length. A single Tomahawk costs about $1 million. The missile is a great weapon for Navy submarines but not well suited for the global, expeditionary force of Marines.
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Joseph Trevithick explains the Marine Corps has revealed a new launcher for its Tomahawk,
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The U.S. Marine Corps has finally given us a look at the uncrewed 4x4 launch vehicle at the core of its new ground-based Tomahawk cruise missile unit. Dubbed the Long Range Fires Launcher, it is similar, but not identical to the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle-based design that the service is also fielding as a launch platform for Naval Strike Missile anti-ship missiles.
Two Long Range Fires Launchers were part of the backdrop for an official ceremony to mark the standing up of Battery A, 11th Marines at Camp Pendleton in California on July 21. The Marines released photos from that event today. Battery A, the service's first Long Range Missile (LMSL) battery, had already been formally activated earlier this year, as The War Zone was the first to report last month. The Corps hopes to have a multi-battery LMSL battalion with an unspecified number of launchers fully operational by 2030.
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The Tomahawk is a powerful weapon system when placed on Navy ships and subs. In a similar way, a single Air Force bomber with a crew of only five can carry and launch 20 ALCMs. As a Marine Corps asset, the Tomahawk is much less useful. It is big and hardly stealthy. Each launcher can fire only one missile. In addition, there is no indication that the new Marine Corps launcher solves the launcher tip-over problem seen in early testing.
As large as the Tomahawk is, it raises an even larger question: how should the Marine Corps decide what new systems to experiment with, or, in other words, how should the Marine Corps decide what new paths to explore? There is a simple answer. The answer is requirements.
Every level of leadership in the Department of Defense has an important role in helping to build a powerful, multi-service force to protect national interests around the globe. It all begins with requirements. The geographic Combatant Commanders review their area of the globe and then develop requirements which are transmitted to the Secretary of Defense. Then, it is the uniformed services that are responsible for organizing, training, equipping, and providing forces that meet the requirements of the Commandant Commanders.
Between the Combatant Commanders defining the requirements and the individual services providing forces that meet those requirements, the services operate under the guidance and boundaries set by the service departments and the DOD. The services all need to have appropriate guidance and boundaries without having so much that the services lose the ability to experiment and prudently adopt new technologies and new approaches. A balance must be found between centralized direction and the freedom and flexibility the services need to build their forces. The DOD should not dictate to the services how they must meet the requirements, but services should not be given too much latitude to waste time and money going in wrong directions.
The way for each service to fend off harmful interference in its own upgrade efforts, is for each service to be clear on the value they bring to national defense. When the Marine Corps does not remain resolutely focused on its primary purpose, its unique contribution to national defense as an always ready, fully capable, expeditionary 9-1-1 force, then it invites outsiders to tamper with Marine Corps organization, training, and equipment. Confusion breeds confusion. The Marine Corps is not the Army, or Air Force, or Navy. The Marine Corps is not now and never will be the primary repository for Tomahawk missiles. Each armed service must develop their strongest capabilities, the capabilities that can meet the requirements of the Combatant Commanders. When each armed service focuses on what they do best, then together all the armed services will keep the Nation safe. The key is for the Marine Corps and all the armed services to stay tied to the Combatant Commanders and their critical requirements.
Combatant Commanders hold a stack of cards in their hand, each card with one critical requirement. When the Combatant Commander holds up the requirement for Tomahawk missiles, the Navy raises their hand and says, “Our ships and subs have got this covered.” When the Combatant Commander holds up a requirement for air launched cruise missiles, the Air Force raises their hand and says, “Our bombers have got this covered.” But when the Combatant Commander holds up a requirement for always ready, fully capable, expeditionary 9-1-1 force, the Combatant Commander does not even look around, but just hands it to the Marine Corps, “this is for you.”
The Marine Corps should experiment with new equipment and new approaches but only so far as it stays tied closely to critical requirements.
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The Drive (thedrive.com) 07/25/2023
Marines’ Tomahawk Missile Launching Drone Truck Breaks Cover
Tomahawks fired from mobile ground-based launchers give the Marines a long-range strike capability unlike any they’ve had before.
By Joseph Trevithick
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/marines-tomahawk-missile-launching-drone-truck-breaks-cover
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Compass Points – Tomahawk Chop
Global response requires a global force
June 16, 2023
https://marinecorpscompasspoints.substack.com/p/compass-points-tomahawk-chop
I have to say that both articles by General Krulak and General Holcomb are on target, as in “Fire for effect, Over”. I am happy that the retired generals have recognized the issue of “open debate”. However, I have to wonder why retired generals have to push back on the US Marine Corps active duty leadership. The responsibility is not theirs, it rests with the active duty generals. This issue is also not limited to the Marine Corps. It is easily spotted with the other Service Chiefs, DOD Secretaries, and the Joint Staff. Remarkably the Combatant Commanders, who are responsible for the actual combat operations seem to remain silent. As Combatant Commanders don’t they have a responsibility to at least ask questions? (I have made this argument before regarding amphibious shipping requirements…what Combatant Commander if polled, would say no to a US Marine MEU deployed to their AOR?)
With the release of Design 2030, it was very apparent from their public statements and actions that the Commandant and his staff did not want the redesign debated or criticized. In addition, the Commandant pulled the tanks from the Marine Corps before the debate even got started. In military terms, we call this “burning your bridges behind you”. Cortes did something similar when he burn his ships. Of course, if a tournament chess arbiter suddenly removes one player’s chess piece at the start of the chess game, it is going to get a lot of attention. Especially, when the arbiter defends this action by stating that it seems to work well in an experimental chess game.
The Commandant’s misstep is establishing a bad strategic requirement focused on a single theater instead of the global strategic problem. Now let’s play a couple of moves in this strategic chess game. If the Combatant Commander deploys Marine Tomahawk Missile Units with Marine Raiders or a Littoral Regiment to a small island in the Pacific, what does the Marine Commander and Combatant Commander do with the unexpected move when a hundred civilian CCP fishing boats show up surrounding the island? BTW, today's deep ocean fishing boats are normally equipped with GPS, radar, and “fishing” sonar. Yep! The Chinese game of “Go” has a lot more playing pieces (stones) than chess.
Just read where after a 2 yr maintenance cycle costing abt 200 million, the USS Boxer is still not seaworthy! No one is saying what the issue is nor how much longer it is going to take to get her ready for deployment? We can do better thsn this! It is both embarrassing and notable that no one is being held accountable for this fiasco.