Compass Points - Urgent Comments
Readers rebuild Marine capabilities
Compass Points - Urgent Comments
Readers rebuild Marine capabilities
August 2, 2024
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It will take updated thinking and updated forces for the Marine Corps to have a true impact in the Pacific.
Author and Marine Gary Anderson created a fictional story set in 2031 about a future China force easily defeating the small Marine Stand-in-Force units. In the future fighting, China's forces simply bypassed or destroyed the isolated Marine units. Without combined arms capabilities, the Marines could not survive.
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"What were they trying to achieve? asked Liu.
"That is a good question, Liu" the admiral answered. "Back in 2019, their marine corps commandant developed a concept that he called expeditionary advance base operations (EABO) and planned to put small groups of troops called Stand-In Forces on tiny islets in the first island chain armed with anti-ship missiles to deter or block our Navy from breaking out of the South China Sea."
"But we never intended to do that," said Liu incredulously.
-- Gary Anderson, "2031, The Middle Kingdom Strikes Back"
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It is not necessary to peer out to 2031. The Marine Corps is being bypassed today. If the Marine Corps is to have a large impact in the Pacific, it will require large, combined arms forces. Defensive, Stand-in-Force missile units are too small and too limited to have much impact. The US and its allies cannot wait for the Marine Corps to re-consider its approach to fighting in the Pacific. Large, combined arms units are needed now.
The Army Times is reporting that for the first time the US Army is preparing to take a much bigger role in the Pacific, "18th Airborne at center of major Pacific exercise for the first time."
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The Army kicked off a massive, simulated war-fighting exercise Thursday that, for the first time, uses the Army’s premier quick-response division in a scenario focused on the Pacific region.
The 18th Airborne Corps out of Fort Liberty, North Carolina, which includes the 82nd Airborne Division, 10th Mountain Division, 3rd Infantry Division and 101st Airborne Division, will fall under the U.S. Army Pacific theater as leaders practice deploying a corps-sized force across vast distances.
-- Army Times
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Compass Points readers have responded online and off with a treasure load of comments, insights, and analysis. Only a few of the comments are re-posted below. Most of the full comments are available for reading on the Compass Points site. As always, comments have been edited for length and content. This week, several longer, thoughtful comments have been included below. Compass Points appreciates the full, insightful, and professional comments of all readers. Many thanks!
Some Compass Points readers are urging the Marine Corps to take action now to rebuild the units, equipment, and capabilities that have been lost. The Marine Corps needs a new warfighting concept and a new plan -- rigorously vetted by the Marine Corps Combat Development Command -- to rapidly rebuild, rebalance, upgrade, and enhance Marine combined arms capabilities. Compass Points thanks readers for the creative proposals about what needs to be done now.
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Douglas C Rapé
I am a believer in DOTMLPF-P in normal times. The Corps as currently configured is not able to carry out the mission assigned by Congress. We have the current Corps, a Corps we must quickly acquire and train in the next 18 months and a Corps for the future which must be ready to fight in 48 months. The divestiture tore the Corps apart and it has currently nothing to show for it. Rapid reconstitution required. We must prepare for a big fight against potential peer competitors or their proxies. The current Marine Corps cannot fight in Ukraine, the environs of Israel or against the Chinese.
Steps:
1. Infantry Bn’s with 4 maneuver companies of about 1000 Marines each. Infantry squads of 15 Marines with three fireteams. Sniper Platoon. Drone platoon.
2. Three Regiments of three Bn’s each in all four divisions. 27 active duty Bn’s and nine reserve.
3. One Artillery Regiment per division with six Bn’s. Three 155 towed, one MLRS, one 155 SP Bn and one anti ship missile ( experimental).
4. One Armored vehicle Regiment with One AAV Bn of six companies, one MBT tank Bn with four companies. Five tanks per platoon. One Medium tank Bn with four companies. Five tanks per platoon. One LAR Bn. One drone Company
5. One Combat Engineer Bn of three light companies and one heavy company and two bridge companies.
6. One Reconnaissance Bn of five companies.
7. One Comm Bn, one Motor transport Bn, one intelligence Company.
There is no time for the traditional RD&E.
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Richard M Cavagnol
As a Marine officer who landed with the 3d Marine Division in Da Nang in July 1965 as XO of Whiskey 2/12 Howitzer Battery (107mm, later transferring to India 3/12 as an FO with 3/4 (105 mm)and later in December 1965 to Recon 2/1, I gained an on-the-ground perspective of the integrated fire support doctrine for artillery cover of platoon-size ambush patrols.
One month later I served as the Artillery Advisor with the Vietnamese Marines with Tony Zinni, Joe Hoar and other future Marine generals. I extended my tour and assumed command of Kilo 4/11 (155mm) battery a week before the start of TET 1968. My battery fired some of the first COFRAM (DPICM or cluster) munitions in February 1968 to a recon team Head Cold and inflicted serious damage on them.
Later we provided fire support for an Army SF team that went across the border, get surrounded and called in our battery fires that saved them. Fast forward to Ukraine 2024 and from the reports, artillery is still the "queen of battle".
The Marine Corps must spend some time developing and enhancing camouflage materials and techniques, coupled with strong ant-drone umbrella to protect the guns. At the risk of sounding repetitive, following the Japanese Island Model strategy of WWII is pure nuts! Forget ammo resupply - thing casevac! And to think that as the Chinese Marines are storming ashore and Joe Snuffy in hunkered down in the foxhole with the FO next to him, are they going to fire a HIMARS with 200 meters danger close? In Iraq in 2007 and later in Afghanistan during 2009-2010, I saw the effective use of artillery and close air support, as well as engineering units and the other integral units that Force Design has discarded.
Stand up some general officers with spines who will listen to those of us who have been there and get the Marine Corps back on track, otherwise we will be dissected like a biology class frog and the pieces parceled out to the Army and Air Force.
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Michael T Gerdau
I wholeheartedly, agree bring back armor. The same for infantry and bridging. I also think scout snipers and MP's should return. Scouts are the guardian angels of the infantry. It's asking a lot for the infantry to supply, much needed Marines, to replace Scouts who are trained with the special qualifications. As for MP's they perform a vital job in coordinating traffic and preparing and manning POW facilities. Or, should the much overburdened infantry units take on the jobs of the Scout's and MP's?
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Bob Whitener
Embedded in MAGTF combined arms and Warfighting is the intangible quality of ingenuity. Reading about then Col. O. P. Smith, the new 5th Marines CO in 1943, he was tasked with an amphibious assault that would have to be accomplished without the benefit of naval gunfire support. The solution was to place 5 Sherman tanks in LCMs. Tank fire support was used instead of naval gunfire. Where there is a will, there is a way. The promised air support did not show either but the 5th Marines prevailed. Marines must be able to function in an imperfect world. SF
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Alfred Karam
The US Air Force, recently conducted a demonstration bomb drop from a B-52 that sank the USS Tarawa with a “Quicksink” bomb. This demonstration was part of Rimpac war drill.
Here again, our sister services have the technology and know-how to sink aircraft carriers with one cheap bomb at their disposal, why would the Marine Corps have a need to continue to pursue FD that is focused on access denial targeting the People’s Liberation Army Navy? Get back to maneuver warfare. Get away from the littoral regiments design. Get back to the MAGTF concept that is proven and is still very much in need for our combatant commanders who are dealing with multitudes of serious geopolitical issues around the world.
The Marine Corps leadership must refocus on the MAGTF concept and retool as fast as possible. Leave the sinking and sea lanes denial to our sister services…don’t duplicate the effort!
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Charles Wemyss, Jr.
In an odd coincidence, The Connecting File published here on Substack, conducted an interview with Major General Julian Dale Alford, USMC (ret) yesterday. Rather than provide too long a rehash or even Cliff Notes of the 90 plus minutes of the interview it is worth listening to, as he covered several MAGTF/Combined arms topics. (As a teaser, he said we need a direct fire gun, that makes big bangs and big holes in an urban battle space as example) His candor is really enjoyable, and there are times when his commentary is laugh out funny on a serious subject. Not to put words in his mouth, but the MAGTF capability was a reinforcement of many of the thoughts that are discussed here regularly. Force Design has been an enormous drain on all matter of levels. General Alford left a bit of light at the end of the tunnel, the alternative of a speeding locomotive is a less enjoyable possible outcome.
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Polarbear
The fact that “two Marines have been selected to be part of the next cohort of so-called “Phantoms”… to participate in the DAF_MIT AI Accelerator” is good news. I would have to caution and hope, however, that the right two Marines are selected as the “Phantoms” and they don’t have to be two of LtGen Matthew Glavy's (deputy commandant of information) “computer” guys. One of the Information Technology hard rock principles is IT initiatives (projects) must be based on business REQUIREMENTS. The “business” of the Marine Corps is warfighting. The two Marines selected for the AI Accelerator must be experts on MCDP-1 Warfighting (having read and re-read) and MAGTF operations and systems. We don’t need computer guys here, we need WAR FIGHTERS.
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Compass Points salutes all Marines and friends of the Corps who in their own ways are continuing to fight for a stronger Marine Corps.
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Real Clear Defense - 07/03/2024
2031, The Middle Kingdom Strikes Back
By Gary Anderson
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Army Times - 08/01/2024
18th Airborne at center of major Pacific exercise for the first time
By Todd South
In WWII what the USMC could do that the Army could not do was to assault from water against fiercely defended land terrain, using combined arms methods--air, artillery, specially designed vehicles and craft, storm troops--but deployed from the water, blitzkrieg from the sea. The 18th Airborne could not do that then and cannot do it now. Relevant now? Yes, because sooner or later China will grab Taiwan, and if that goes well the next tier, Senkakus, Okinawa, Luzon, Guam, either immediately or in the course of time. (To protect its coasts, its commerce, its inherent national interests, its way of life, China will tell you.) If the US wants a long term presence in the Western Pacific it will have to take these areas back, the same way the Chinese may take them, by amphibious assault, modern combined arms deployed from the sea.
Also, BTW, you cannot defend a missile base with missiles, or an airbase with aircraft.
Let's see, the Army can deploy a couple of Multi-Domain Task Forces, plus at least a couple divisions tasked to the Pacific, and yet the Commandant still wants this FD mission! We need to do what no one else does: combined arms naval expeditionary warfare!!