I have always found it curious that the senior leadership restructured and reorganized the entire Marine Corps to promote stand-in forces (SIF), while continuing to call the MEU the “crown jewel” of the Corps. One would think the generals would consider the SIF the “crown jewel” since the bill payers to fund it were amphibious lift, maritime prepositioning ships, and a resilient and effective combined arms capability.
But... if one really understood warfighting, would they not logically consider the MEF the “crown jewel” of the Marine Corps? Only a truly combined arms MEF has the combat power and sustainment to fight and win globally or to contribute significantly to a larger joint or combined fight.
A combination of amphibious and MPS MEBs is needed to quickly composite to a MEF size force. The problem, as CP points out, is that the Marine Corps currently lacks the amphibious and MPS ships and a robust and resilient combined arms capability to deploy an effective amphibious or MPS MEB. Bumper stickers are not a substitute for the real McCoy.
Today’s Marine Corps is unable to keep two MEUs continuously forward deployed, much less deploy a combined arms MEB with 30 days of combat sustainment. If General Smith is serious about “balancing crisis response with modernization,” restoring the capability to quickly deploy a warfighting MEB is a good place to start. This will require rethinking the amphibious ship requirement, the number and location of MPS ships, and the combined arms capability needed to fight our adversaries worldwide. Chowder II’s Vision 2035 is a good starting point for developing an operating concept which can be vetted through an integrated combat development process to determine the requirements.
Exceptional analysis and comment. We have watched the FD 2030 train wreck unfold under Berger and Smith’s dictate. We know the deteriorated state of all the necessary elements required to reconstitute “Supremacy of the MEF”. We also know from the study of history and from today’s operational realities that the Marine Corps of April 2024 is incapable of performing its mission as stated in US Code. This is a direct result of the destruction of the Marine Corps orchestrated by Generals Berger and Smith. Why should we believe anything that CMC Smith writes or states? America’s Amphibious Navy sits rusting in port unable to sail. Our Navy cannot meet its recruiting goals. The USNS Bobo returned to port due to fire unable to transport a flawed resupply gaggle to Gaza. 2 CMCs unilaterally gave away our armor, bridging capabilities, snipers, towed cannon artillery, etc etc and destroyed the Marine Division by turning Regiments in MLRs. Our armories were stripped of anti tank weapons, Javelins,Carl Gustaf Recoilless Rifles that along with the M777s and their ammunition were sent to the Ukraine. Have they been replaced and or replenished? The Commander in Chief does not know the difference between the location of Haifa, Israel and Rafah in Gaza or that it is on the border of Egypt not Mexico. These are facts not “ad hominem” attacks. Semper Fidelis!
Can anyone in our out of uniform precisely define what combat capability the Marine Corps can bring to the table tomorrow morning? Not what some fantasy decides we might have in 2027 and not what we had in 2020 but right now. How about nothing of substance? It was certainly not budgetary problem. It was a self inflicted gun shot in the face. 81 Billion in military surplus equipment, trash and junk might at least kill some Russians. Student loan debt is $1.77 Trillion. Neither have a damn thing to due with the USMC suicide.
Why does the US have any military forces in Sub-Saharan Africa? Is there any problem there with a military solution? Of course not. Get out of there.
DoD is conducting a stupidity parade. Only question is who should get the “most stupid award.” There should be an avalanche of rolling heads. Yet, there is not one.
In an almost childish sense or way of looking at the problem, what has the Marine Corps done successfully, for at least the last 100 plus years, maybe more? It has gone basically from the sea to the land and handled crisis after crisis after crisis. Whether it was some conflict of a localized nature or a conflict that grew into a large scale long term commitment of Marines to sustained combat. WWI, semi short, WWII, long, Korea, semi short, Viet Nam, semi long, first Gulf War, very short, Iraq and Afghanistan, very long. In almost each case the initial phase was built around the MEU/MEB/MEF tactical concept. (Don’t forget humanitarian relief missions and the Banana Wars which were a combination of both) so what do we know? The MAGTF works brilliantly and NO ONE else has it, or has had the smarts to have it and NO ONE else has had the moxie and wherewithal to make it work.
So who screwed it up? We know the culprits, inside the beltway nabobs (plus a couple of our own) that work in a couple of buildings so big and confusing one needs a map to get around them, and worse these centers of wisdom and planning lack wisdom and planning. No? How about the HKIA exfil/NEO, of 15-26 August 2021? No one saw what every Marine for many years saw and knew who served in Afghanistan, the Afghan political and military structure made in the American image was a mirage and when the heat waves cleared it evaporated and left 2/1, 1/8, and two Army elements holding the bag. What a bag it was too. What a tragic and unnecessary loss of 11 Marines, 1 US Army Soldier, and 1 US Navy Sailor. Easy to digress but everyone here gets the point. No real “strategic” planning and an ad hoc withdrawal and humanitarian crisis of epic proportions. (Not to leave out the super human efforts of the Air Commands that flew in and out of HKIA without whom it would have been over before it started.)
So back to basics. Be redundant and loud and clear and make every Federal Senator, Representative and their staffs miserable whilst making the clear case for no more nonsense over SIF, Littoral Regiments, infantry rifle companyT/O’s full of Gunny’s and staff NCO’s, etc. We want our combat engineers back, we want a tank of some kind, we want out tubes back, etc, only we want new ones, not some battle damaged gear that someone just towed off the battlefield in the Eastern Oblasts of Ukraine. We have read the FRAGO 01-2024, it is bipolar. Let’s help the current CMC with his divided thinking. One true north the MEU/MEB/MEF and MAGTF in concept and practice plainly proven in its brilliance and execution. While we are causing mayhem on that effort, raise holy Hell, with the SecNav and CNO over our damn ships. We want 50, we will settle for something less if they can prove they can deliver us from sea to land with slightly less.
It is said that Maneuver Warfare is a Philosophy and not doctrine, agreed. But it is also a mindset, and one that can be employed in war fighting and in all matter and manner of day to day efforts. We have a bunch of SiF’s in the DOD and Congress, stagnant do nothings. What to do? “We have two companies of Marines running rampant all the northern half of the island and three army regiments pinned down in the southwestern corner doing nothing. What the Hell is going on?” General John Vessey Chairman of the JCS, re: Operation Urgent Fury 1983. Exactly run rampant. Remind all, “that there are only two kinds of people that understand Marines, Marines and the enemy, everyone else has second opinions.”
Knowledge of and integration into DOD’s Joint Strategic Planning Procedures use to be a forte of the US Marine Corps. After all, that is the primary way the Marine Corps is going to get into the Combatant Commander’s fight. I am finding it difficult to believe that the US Marine Corps left its MEBs out of the DOD Unified Command Plan (UCP) and the Joint Strategic Capabilities Plan (JSCP). Back in the days of the MPFs, I know they were there along with MEFS and amphibious MEBs. Did 20 years of changing strategies in Iraq and Afghanistan (First Presence, to Nation Building, to COIN, and to Counter Terrorism) screw us up that badly?
“The UCP:
• Outlines the structure of the combatant commands, assigns geographic areas of responsibility, and defines command relationships. It serves as the foundation for organizing and employing military forces globally.
• Offers high-level guidance on force allocation, mission priorities, and theater-specific requirements.
• Directly influences the allocation of forces to combatant commanders, ensuring they have the necessary capabilities to execute their missions.
The JSCP is the primary vehicle through which the CJCS exercises responsibility to provide for the preparation of joint operation plans. It apportions limited forces and resources to combatant commanders, based on military capabilities resulting from completed program and budget actions and intelligence assessments. The JSCP provides a coherent framework for capabilities-based military advice provided to the President and Secretary of Defense.
• Provides the framework for military direction to the Joint Force. It implements strategic guidance from key documents such as the National Security Strategy (NSS), the Quadrennial Defense Review, and the National Military Strategy (NMS).
• Augments the strategic direction provided by the UCP and the Global Force Management Implementation Guidance (GFMIG)
• Informs subsequent development of supporting joint training programs. It helps shape how forces are trained and prepared for various scenarios.”
If Marine Corps Forces are not in the Joint allocated forces of the Combatant Commanders, we are non-participates when Combatant Commanders are tasked to fight. One of my complaints about the 2030 Design was it seems to have forgotten about the Joint Service Structure that Goldwater-Nichols established.
Ok…….we need 6 Fighting MEBs……Tomorrow Out Congress will send 68 Billion US Dollars to Ukraine …..more than the entire USMC Budget for 1 year. U.S. TROOPS IN NIGER SAY THEY’RE “STRANDED” AND CAN’T GET MAIL, MEDICINE
U.S. military service members interviewed for a congressional inquiry said intelligence reports about how bad the situation is were being suppressed.
Nick Turse
April 18 2024, 5:22 p.m.
SUPPORT US
Protesters gather as a man holds up a sign demanding that soldiers from the United States Army leave Niger without negotiation during a demonstration in Niamey, on April 13, 2024. Thousands of people demonstrated on April 13, 2024 in Niger's capital Niamey to demand the immediate departure of American soldiers based in northern Niger, after the military regime said it was withdrawing from a 2012 cooperation deal with Washington. (Photo by AFP) (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images)
Protesters that the Niger military dictatorship allowed to gather to demonstrate against U.S. troop presence on April 13, 2024. Photo: AFP via Getty Images
Share
THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION is “actively suppressing intelligence reports” about the state of U.S. military relations with Niger, according to a new report issued by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. U.S. military service members told Gaetz’s office that they can’t get medicine, mail, or other support from the Pentagon.
I have always found it curious that the senior leadership restructured and reorganized the entire Marine Corps to promote stand-in forces (SIF), while continuing to call the MEU the “crown jewel” of the Corps. One would think the generals would consider the SIF the “crown jewel” since the bill payers to fund it were amphibious lift, maritime prepositioning ships, and a resilient and effective combined arms capability.
But... if one really understood warfighting, would they not logically consider the MEF the “crown jewel” of the Marine Corps? Only a truly combined arms MEF has the combat power and sustainment to fight and win globally or to contribute significantly to a larger joint or combined fight.
A combination of amphibious and MPS MEBs is needed to quickly composite to a MEF size force. The problem, as CP points out, is that the Marine Corps currently lacks the amphibious and MPS ships and a robust and resilient combined arms capability to deploy an effective amphibious or MPS MEB. Bumper stickers are not a substitute for the real McCoy.
Today’s Marine Corps is unable to keep two MEUs continuously forward deployed, much less deploy a combined arms MEB with 30 days of combat sustainment. If General Smith is serious about “balancing crisis response with modernization,” restoring the capability to quickly deploy a warfighting MEB is a good place to start. This will require rethinking the amphibious ship requirement, the number and location of MPS ships, and the combined arms capability needed to fight our adversaries worldwide. Chowder II’s Vision 2035 is a good starting point for developing an operating concept which can be vetted through an integrated combat development process to determine the requirements.
Exceptional analysis and comment. We have watched the FD 2030 train wreck unfold under Berger and Smith’s dictate. We know the deteriorated state of all the necessary elements required to reconstitute “Supremacy of the MEF”. We also know from the study of history and from today’s operational realities that the Marine Corps of April 2024 is incapable of performing its mission as stated in US Code. This is a direct result of the destruction of the Marine Corps orchestrated by Generals Berger and Smith. Why should we believe anything that CMC Smith writes or states? America’s Amphibious Navy sits rusting in port unable to sail. Our Navy cannot meet its recruiting goals. The USNS Bobo returned to port due to fire unable to transport a flawed resupply gaggle to Gaza. 2 CMCs unilaterally gave away our armor, bridging capabilities, snipers, towed cannon artillery, etc etc and destroyed the Marine Division by turning Regiments in MLRs. Our armories were stripped of anti tank weapons, Javelins,Carl Gustaf Recoilless Rifles that along with the M777s and their ammunition were sent to the Ukraine. Have they been replaced and or replenished? The Commander in Chief does not know the difference between the location of Haifa, Israel and Rafah in Gaza or that it is on the border of Egypt not Mexico. These are facts not “ad hominem” attacks. Semper Fidelis!
Can anyone in our out of uniform precisely define what combat capability the Marine Corps can bring to the table tomorrow morning? Not what some fantasy decides we might have in 2027 and not what we had in 2020 but right now. How about nothing of substance? It was certainly not budgetary problem. It was a self inflicted gun shot in the face. 81 Billion in military surplus equipment, trash and junk might at least kill some Russians. Student loan debt is $1.77 Trillion. Neither have a damn thing to due with the USMC suicide.
Why does the US have any military forces in Sub-Saharan Africa? Is there any problem there with a military solution? Of course not. Get out of there.
DoD is conducting a stupidity parade. Only question is who should get the “most stupid award.” There should be an avalanche of rolling heads. Yet, there is not one.
In an almost childish sense or way of looking at the problem, what has the Marine Corps done successfully, for at least the last 100 plus years, maybe more? It has gone basically from the sea to the land and handled crisis after crisis after crisis. Whether it was some conflict of a localized nature or a conflict that grew into a large scale long term commitment of Marines to sustained combat. WWI, semi short, WWII, long, Korea, semi short, Viet Nam, semi long, first Gulf War, very short, Iraq and Afghanistan, very long. In almost each case the initial phase was built around the MEU/MEB/MEF tactical concept. (Don’t forget humanitarian relief missions and the Banana Wars which were a combination of both) so what do we know? The MAGTF works brilliantly and NO ONE else has it, or has had the smarts to have it and NO ONE else has had the moxie and wherewithal to make it work.
So who screwed it up? We know the culprits, inside the beltway nabobs (plus a couple of our own) that work in a couple of buildings so big and confusing one needs a map to get around them, and worse these centers of wisdom and planning lack wisdom and planning. No? How about the HKIA exfil/NEO, of 15-26 August 2021? No one saw what every Marine for many years saw and knew who served in Afghanistan, the Afghan political and military structure made in the American image was a mirage and when the heat waves cleared it evaporated and left 2/1, 1/8, and two Army elements holding the bag. What a bag it was too. What a tragic and unnecessary loss of 11 Marines, 1 US Army Soldier, and 1 US Navy Sailor. Easy to digress but everyone here gets the point. No real “strategic” planning and an ad hoc withdrawal and humanitarian crisis of epic proportions. (Not to leave out the super human efforts of the Air Commands that flew in and out of HKIA without whom it would have been over before it started.)
So back to basics. Be redundant and loud and clear and make every Federal Senator, Representative and their staffs miserable whilst making the clear case for no more nonsense over SIF, Littoral Regiments, infantry rifle companyT/O’s full of Gunny’s and staff NCO’s, etc. We want our combat engineers back, we want a tank of some kind, we want out tubes back, etc, only we want new ones, not some battle damaged gear that someone just towed off the battlefield in the Eastern Oblasts of Ukraine. We have read the FRAGO 01-2024, it is bipolar. Let’s help the current CMC with his divided thinking. One true north the MEU/MEB/MEF and MAGTF in concept and practice plainly proven in its brilliance and execution. While we are causing mayhem on that effort, raise holy Hell, with the SecNav and CNO over our damn ships. We want 50, we will settle for something less if they can prove they can deliver us from sea to land with slightly less.
It is said that Maneuver Warfare is a Philosophy and not doctrine, agreed. But it is also a mindset, and one that can be employed in war fighting and in all matter and manner of day to day efforts. We have a bunch of SiF’s in the DOD and Congress, stagnant do nothings. What to do? “We have two companies of Marines running rampant all the northern half of the island and three army regiments pinned down in the southwestern corner doing nothing. What the Hell is going on?” General John Vessey Chairman of the JCS, re: Operation Urgent Fury 1983. Exactly run rampant. Remind all, “that there are only two kinds of people that understand Marines, Marines and the enemy, everyone else has second opinions.”
No MEBs?
Knowledge of and integration into DOD’s Joint Strategic Planning Procedures use to be a forte of the US Marine Corps. After all, that is the primary way the Marine Corps is going to get into the Combatant Commander’s fight. I am finding it difficult to believe that the US Marine Corps left its MEBs out of the DOD Unified Command Plan (UCP) and the Joint Strategic Capabilities Plan (JSCP). Back in the days of the MPFs, I know they were there along with MEFS and amphibious MEBs. Did 20 years of changing strategies in Iraq and Afghanistan (First Presence, to Nation Building, to COIN, and to Counter Terrorism) screw us up that badly?
“The UCP:
• Outlines the structure of the combatant commands, assigns geographic areas of responsibility, and defines command relationships. It serves as the foundation for organizing and employing military forces globally.
• Offers high-level guidance on force allocation, mission priorities, and theater-specific requirements.
• Directly influences the allocation of forces to combatant commanders, ensuring they have the necessary capabilities to execute their missions.
The JSCP is the primary vehicle through which the CJCS exercises responsibility to provide for the preparation of joint operation plans. It apportions limited forces and resources to combatant commanders, based on military capabilities resulting from completed program and budget actions and intelligence assessments. The JSCP provides a coherent framework for capabilities-based military advice provided to the President and Secretary of Defense.
• Provides the framework for military direction to the Joint Force. It implements strategic guidance from key documents such as the National Security Strategy (NSS), the Quadrennial Defense Review, and the National Military Strategy (NMS).
• Augments the strategic direction provided by the UCP and the Global Force Management Implementation Guidance (GFMIG)
• Informs subsequent development of supporting joint training programs. It helps shape how forces are trained and prepared for various scenarios.”
If Marine Corps Forces are not in the Joint allocated forces of the Combatant Commanders, we are non-participates when Combatant Commanders are tasked to fight. One of my complaints about the 2030 Design was it seems to have forgotten about the Joint Service Structure that Goldwater-Nichols established.
Its called the deputy division commander of the division that the regiment comes from.
With the staff from the MEF and division as necessary, its a meeting between the MEF commander the Division, wing and so forth. bam done.
If you want to float one on ships like a MEU permanently I'd say its unnecessary.
If a MEU is fully engaged the there should have already been plans to support with follow-on forces.
Not hard just some smart Generals giving their intent as the situation develops.
Ok…….we need 6 Fighting MEBs……Tomorrow Out Congress will send 68 Billion US Dollars to Ukraine …..more than the entire USMC Budget for 1 year. U.S. TROOPS IN NIGER SAY THEY’RE “STRANDED” AND CAN’T GET MAIL, MEDICINE
U.S. military service members interviewed for a congressional inquiry said intelligence reports about how bad the situation is were being suppressed.
Nick Turse
April 18 2024, 5:22 p.m.
SUPPORT US
Protesters gather as a man holds up a sign demanding that soldiers from the United States Army leave Niger without negotiation during a demonstration in Niamey, on April 13, 2024. Thousands of people demonstrated on April 13, 2024 in Niger's capital Niamey to demand the immediate departure of American soldiers based in northern Niger, after the military regime said it was withdrawing from a 2012 cooperation deal with Washington. (Photo by AFP) (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images)
Protesters that the Niger military dictatorship allowed to gather to demonstrate against U.S. troop presence on April 13, 2024. Photo: AFP via Getty Images
Share
THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION is “actively suppressing intelligence reports” about the state of U.S. military relations with Niger, according to a new report issued by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. U.S. military service members told Gaetz’s office that they can’t get medicine, mail, or other support from the Pentagon.
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