Compass Points - Sudden Options
National policy makers need options
Compass Points - Sudden Options
National policy makers need options
July 17, 2024
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In a dangerous world, US policy makers need policy options. Each military service provides policy makers with different options. For example, the US Army and Air Force recently participated in an exercise called Swamp Avenger.
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Soldiers in the 3rd Infantry Division are prepared to deploy anywhere in the world, at any given point. This summer, they’re running a force deployment readiness exercise to practice that emergency capability.
A company-sized number of M2A4 Bradley Fighting Vehicles and approximately 60 personnel, along with fuelers, cargo trucks, Joint Light Tactical Vehicles and tracked vehicle maintenance vehicles are headed from Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield, Georgia, to Fort Irwin, California, according to a spokesperson from the division.
After jointly working with the Air Force, the first element landed July 11, and the rotation will run through early August, they added.
The all-encompassing exercise tasks civilians and military personnel, who would participate in a real-world emergency deployment, with practicing their responsibilities on a compressed time schedule, during a training they didn’t necessarily know was going to occur, Lt. Col. Michael Hefti, battalion commander of the 5th Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, told Military Times.
“What makes this different is we’re going all the way across the country, and going straight into a tactical exercise at the National Training Center,” he said.
-- Army Times
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As part of the exercise, the Army loaded the Bradley's, other equipment, and all personnel into large transport aircraft. The Boeing C-17 Globemaster III and the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy are strategic transport aircraft, able to airlift cargo close to a battle area. The Globemaster III has a large cargo capacity:
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Capacity: 170,900 lb (77,519 kg) of cargo distributed at max over 18 463L master pallets or a mix of palletized cargo and vehicles
- 102 paratroopers or
- 134 troops with palletized and sidewall seats or
- 54 troops with sidewall seats (allows 13 cargo pallets) only or
- 36 litter and 54 ambulatory patients and medical attendants or
- Cargo, such as one M1 Abrams tank, two Bradley armored vehicles, or three Stryker armored vehicles
-- US Air Force fact sheet
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The C-5 Galaxy has a capacity roughly twice the C-17, but the C-5s are being retired as more C-17s are produced. It takes more than 10 C-17s to move a Bradley company.
In some crisis, no doubt, a company of Bradley's arriving by Globemaster would be the perfect solution. But there are many drawbacks. For example, the Globemaster needs a secure runway nearly 4,000 feet long. That means the Globemasters may not be able to land at the nation in crisis but would have to land nearby.
Compare the flying Bradley's with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit now operating in the Mediterranean.
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Big deck amphibious warship USS Wasp (LHD-1) passed through the Strait of Gibraltar on Wednesday and is now operating in the Mediterranean Sea, according to ship spotters.
The transit follows a brief port visit to Naval Station Rota, Spain.
“While in the Mediterranean, our crew, both Sailor and Marine, will have to sustain an increased level of awareness and caution,” Wasp operations officer Cmdr. Sean Getway said in a statement.
“The ship must maintain a strong presence during the months ahead and be prepared to conduct a variety of tasking.”
Wasp and its Amphibious Ready Group deployed from the East Coast on June 1 with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit embarked, according to the Navy.
Wasp, amphibious transport dock ship USS New York (LPD-21), and dock landing ship USS Oak Hill (LSD-51) make up the three-ship ARG that had been operating in the Baltic Sea as part of the BALTOPS exercises earlier this month. Oak Hill, along with guided-missile cruiser USS Normandy (CG-60), were part of the U.S. Navy contingent participating in the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landing in France
The North Carolina-based 24th MEU is composed of a command element, Battalion Landing Team 1/8, Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 365 (Reinforced) and Combat Logistics Battalion 24 as the Logistics Combat Element.
-- USNI News
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When a foreign crisis erupts anywhere in the world, US policy makers want to know if there are Marines nearby loaded on Navy amphibious ships steaming toward the crisis ready to deter, assist, and fight. There is nothing that has the capabilities, the flexibility, and sheer power of combined arms Marines locked and loaded off a troubled coast. Those C-17 Globemasters cannot wait offshore the way the USS Wasp can. That Bradley company is a good military asset. It is no criticism of the soldiers to say that Marines forward deployed on amphibious ships can deliver options to senior policy makers that nothing else can.
Compass Points salutes the Army and everyone involved in exercise Swamp Avenger, salutes the Marines and sailors of the 24th MEU now in the Med, and also salutes all the Marines, on active duty today and those on active duty yesterday, who are working to rebuild, restore, upgrade, and enhance the amazing, combined arms, forward deployed Marine Air Ground Logistics Task Force.
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Army Times - 07/15/2024
Army rehearses deploying Bradleys anywhere at a moment’s notice
By Jonathan Lehrfeld
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USNI News - 06/26/2024
USS Wasp Now in the Mediterranean Sea
By Sam LaGrone
https://news.usni.org/2024/06/26/uss-wasp-enter-the-mediterranean-sea
This entire article shows how much of a farce the Armys plan is. You can get a company of Bradleys on 10 C-17. Where is its logistical support? Where is its air cover? One never commits troops and vehicles without adequate air cover. What you have in the scenario that you laid out is some light armored vehicles and troops stranded on an airfield.
The Army Times article calls the task force "America's Contingency Corps." I thought we were America's contingency/rapid deployment force? At least we used to be! I wonder if the Commandant is aware of this deployment? Better yet, I wonder if he sees the connection?? Once again, too many questions and no real answers.