Compass Points – Extreme Course
Steer to the center channel
January 25, 2024
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It is all about steering away from extremes.
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The U.S. Navy said the destroyer USS John Finn transited through the Taiwan Strait on a course "beyond the territorial sea of any coastal state." The Taiwan Strait is only 100 miles wide, the USS John Finn had to steer a safe course, not leaning too far in either direction. An extreme course to port and it would crash into one country. Hard to starboard, it would crash into the other. The key is to stay away from the extreme course. Stick to the center channel where the water is deep, and the course is safe.
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The Navy fleet must also stay away from the extreme course in its deployments. Not every ship in the Navy can be transiting the Taiwan Strait at the same time, that would be extreme. As the USS John Finn was transiting the Taiwan Strait, the Navy also reported that, "The Whidbey Island-class dock landing ship USS Gunston Hall (LSD 44) departed Naval Station Norfolk, Jan. 24, for Steadfast Defender 2024, NATO’s largest exercise in decades." Navy ships around the globe is always the best course.
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The future holds unknowns. Current operations in Ukraine, Gaza, and now the Red Sea show we can never know all that the future holds.
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The U.S. Navy is encountering a tenacious threat in the Red Sea. The Iran-backed Houthi rebels have launched wave after wave of low-cost precision weapons at vessels transiting the area, including attacks on U.S. warships themselves.
“That’s one of the things [that] the Red Sea sort of demonstrates ... we never know where the maritime threat might come up,” said Bradley Martin, a senior policy researcher at Rand, in an interview with CNBC. “And we have to make sure we have sufficient force structure to meet that. That is going to be the real challenge of the next decade.“
-- CNBC
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The unknowns are the "real challenge of the next decade."
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In a tongue-twisting moment back on February 12, 2002, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld warned,
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There are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say, we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don't know we don't know.
--Donald Rumsfeld
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The only way to prepare for the unknowns is by staying away from the extremes and steering the center course. The US always needs a crisis response force around the globe with an array of capabilities.
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That is the center course for the Marine Corps. Among the many damaging aspects of the Marine Corps' misguided experiment with Force Design, it has put the Marine Corps on an extreme course. Until a few years ago, the Marine Corps prepared for the unknowns of the future by deploying Marine Air Ground (Logistics) Task Forces (MAGTF) around the world onboard Navy amphibious ships. Continual deployment of MAGTFs around the globe, each one with a robust arsenal of capabilities, made Marines the force of choice for crisis response.
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Deployed MAGTFs on Navy ships are sourced and augmented from the three much larger, Marine Expeditionary Forces (MEF), one on the East Coast, one on the West Coast, and one in the Western Pacific. But these MEFs have been subject to extreme cuts. They have been stripped of units, equipment, and capabilities. Too much air, armor, artillery, infantry, combat breaching and bridging, as well as amphibious ships and prepositioning ships have been lost in an extreme experiment with Marine missile units.
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The focus on placing small units of missile Marines on islands in the Pacific has done great harm to the Marine Corps and to National security. It is past time for the Marine Corps to turn from the extreme course and find the center channel again. A MAGTF today would be upgraded with advanced missiles, rockets, and drones but would also have the upgraded air, armor, artillery, infantry, combat breaching and bridging, and more to ensure the Marine Corps once again had the full, robust, arsenal of capabilities that only a complete MAGTF can provide.
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As the USS John Finn steered through the Taiwan Strait, it carefully avoided the extremes and stayed to the center channel. Unfortunately, over the last few years, the Marine Corps has not stayed away from the extremes. It is time for the Marine Corps to steer toward the center channel again. The Marine Corps and the Nation will only be ready for the unknowns, by focusing on rebuilding and redeploying the completely updated and completely robust MAGTF.
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Reuters (reuters.com) 01/24/2024
US Navy sends first warship through Taiwan Strait post-election
https://www.reuters.com/world/us-navy-says-uss-john-finn-conducted-transit-taiwan-strait-2024-01-24/
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CNBC (cnbc.com) 01/24/2024
How chaos in the Red Sea is putting the U.S. Navy to the test
By Brad Howard
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/24/how-chaos-in-the-red-sea-is-putting-the-us-navy-to-the-test.html
So the Finn was cutting the Taiwan Straight and the Whidbey Island is headed to Steadfast Defender. So, other than the carriers, what is the third operationally ready surface ship doing? ;)
"The Taiwan Strait is only 100 miles wide" that comment reminded me of a item. Immediately after Desert Storm the CCP did an evaluation, "Lessons Learned", focused on our military operational capabilities. What we missed, and they noticed is the performance of the 101st Airborne Division. The entire Division (three Brigades) penetrated 175 miles into Iraq to cut the primary enemy MSR (and they did it without any V-22s). I have said it before, those cut Marine Wing assets are going to have a long time line to re-constitute.