Compass Points - Up in the Air
Aviation capabilities are coming back.
Compass Points - Up in the Air
Aviation capabilities are coming back.
May 21, 2024
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There is good news about Marine aviation. Maybe not 100% good news, but still good news. Back in 2023 the entire worldwide fleet of the MV22 Osprey was grounded. Months later when the Osprey's were allowed to fly again, the Marine Corps celebrated loudly. What was not so loudly celebrated is that Ospreys are all still flying under strict flight restrictions.
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The Marine Osprey is used for:
• Amphibious Assault
• Sustained Land Operations
• Self-Deployment
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But now Military. com is reporting, "Military Ospreys Can't Fly More Than 30 Minutes from Landing Airfield Months After Grounding Lifted." What do the flight restrictions mean?
• Amphibious Assault - SEVERELY LIMITED
• Sustained Land Operations - SEVERELY LIMITED
• Self-Deployment - SEVERELY LIMITED OR NOT AVAILABLE
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Marine aviation is now studying new approaches to aviation under a program called, Project Eagle.
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Project Eagle has three priorities and will be carried out in three phases . . . . The priorities are to support the Marine Air-Ground Task Force in modernization efforts, “ensure detailed collaboration and interoperability with the Joint Force maritime component command” and “support broader joint and coalition force efforts of interoperability and interchangeability,” he wrote.
-- National Defense
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Those are nice sounding words, "modernization" and "collaboration" and "interchangeability." It is not clear that Project Eagle helps Marine aviation to keep its focus always on the traditional six functions of Marine aviation:
-- Offensive Air Support,
-- Anti-Air Warfare,
-- Assault Support,
-- Air Reconnaissance,
-- Electronic Warfare,
-- Control of Aircraft and Missiles
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To help maintain the six functions of Marine aviation, some old decisions are being recalculated. For example, the Marine Times is reporting that, "Marine Corps is reviving a light attack helicopter unit it cut in 2022."
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The December 2022 deactivation took place as part of Force Design 2030, the Corps’ plan for modernizing to meet the threat of technologically sophisticated adversaries like the Chinese military. As part of the plan, the service has gotten rid of some units and assets to free up money for other capabilities.
In the initial 2020 document laying out Force Design 2030, then-Commandant Gen. David Berger called for the Marine Corps to cut at least two of its seven light attack helicopter squadrons.
“While this capability has a certain amount of relevance to crisis and contingency missions which we must still be prepared to execute, it is operationally unsuitable for our highest-priority maritime challenges and excess to our needs with the divestment of three infantry battalions,” Berger wrote.
--Marine Times
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Marine aviation is rethinking some of the recent aviation cuts. In addition to bringing back HMLA-269, some reports indicate the Marine Corps has reversed course and will not deactivate HMH-464. That is welcome news. But instead of saying aviation leaders are re-thinking the cuts, perhaps it is better to say that senior leaders in Marine aviation always had doubts about the wisdom of the abrupt and severe cuts. The aviation leaders warned early on that if the aviation cuts continued, "multiple communities will be stressed over the coming years."
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As the Marine Corps continues to execute Force Design 2030, we are experiencing challenges driven by aviation capacity being reduced without relief from operational commitments. Multiple communities will be stressed over the coming years, resulting from either divestment or transition. This is a critical period for the Marine Corps and for Marine Aviation. We must protect the progress that we have made over the past several years in increased readiness in order to sustain our competitive advantage over our adversaries.
--USMC Aviation Plan 2022
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Compass Points celebrates the return of the MV22 Ospreys -- even with flight restrictions -- and the return of HMLA-269 and HMH-464. Compass Points also salutes the entire hard-working Marine aviation team who do so much every day to keep the Marine Corps flying. In some ways, aviation leaders have set the example about how to deal with unwise cuts in Marine capabilities. Aviation leaders warned long and loud that cuts in aviation were a bad idea. Then, they kept working until needed capabilities began to be restored. Perhaps aviation leaders are showing the way for the rest of the Marine Corps.
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Military.com - 05/16/2024
Military Ospreys Can't Fly More Than 30 Minutes from Landing Airfield Months After Grounding Lifted
By Thomas Novelly, Drew F. Lawrence, and Konstantin Toropin
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National Defense Magazine - 5/1/2024
MDM News: Marine Corps Charting Aviation Path to 2040
By Sean Carberry
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Marine Times - 03/21/2024
Marine Corps is reviving a light attack helicopter unit it cut in 2022
By Irene Loewenson
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Marines
USMC Aviation Plan 2022
I am very glad to hear the USMC saying it needs to address the same practical logistics issues brought up here on CP and elsewhere over the last 2 years, as seen in this comment from one of the articles in this post:
"["]Project Eagle will be heavily shaped by the concept of distributed aviation operations["], said Col. Derek Brannon, director of the Cunningham Group within the Deputy Commandant for Aviation."..."What distributed aviation operations drives us to, is looking at the hard questions of logistics, sustainment, resiliency, force protection.""..."Addressing the aviation role in contested logistics is critical, he said. And that's what DAO is driving us to do is to have those hard conversations about how are you going to actually sustain and execute anywhere around the world support the [MAGTF] and pull in the Joint Force and support the Joint Force?"".
(From https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2024/5/1/marine-corps-charting-aviation-path-to-2040. *Note: apologies for my edits in brackets; the source had grammar issues.)
-My $.02: I am a true advocate of the mantra that 'Ops Drives Logistics'...but logistical considerations are necessary to successful Operations. It is a fine line between "a great and difficult challenge, possibly without precedent" versus "cannot be done with current level of human achievement in the time frame required". I hope my friends on the "Proponent of FD (2030)" side of the house feel free to post of how blind and stuck in the past the USMC must be to admit an operational logistics deficiency in such practical matters despite being vetted in 'The Wargamingz'. Ian, Phil, Hammes, Dean, etc: Are you out there? (Preemptive note: Use of 'Campaign of Learning' is not allowed since we are speaking to Operational Capabilities available to COCOMs now. Otherwise, I could use 'Campaign of Learning' in 1863 to explain how I will eventually provide Carrier Borne Naval Air Forces to the Union Effort if we only divest of our current wooden hull vessels by the start of FY1865).
Regarding 30 mile range for V-22, once again the Republic was lied to by its Senior Civilian and Uniformed Military Leaders. Recently a photo of Marines from the 15TH MEU, who were stranded ashore while the Broken Boxer was awaiting rudder repair, portrayed Marines practicing ingress and egress from a static V22 positioned inside a circle drawn on the airfield. This is the 2024 version of Pre WWII US Forces training w non firing rifles made of wood. No worries next month is Military Gay Pride Month…the USAF Director of DEI has made funds available for celebration of deviant sex acts for all USAF bases.