Compass Points - Where are the Marines?
Uncertain world demands reliable Marines.
Compass Points - Where are the Marines?
Uncertain world demands reliable Marines.
December 10, 2024
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Why does the United States need an updated, combined arms, global, crisis response force of Marines? The headline of an article in today's Washington Post gives the answer, "U.S. Scrambles To Respond To Unexpected Collapse." The crisis today is in Syria. The crisis next week or next month will be somewhere else. About the immediate crisis in Syria, the Washington Post reports, ". . . Syria was not on anyone’s list of likely crises."
The future brings unexpected crises; it always has, it always will. That is why the US needs its 9-1-1, rapid response force of Marines. Today, the US needs Marines in the Eastern Mediterranean onboard amphibious ships providing a calming force that can deter, assist, and fight.
Where are the Marines?
Unfortunately, the USNI News is reporting that the Marines that were most recently in the Med are no longer there: "The Wasp Amphibious Ready Group ended a seven-month deployment to the Baltic and Mediterranean seas on Friday, as the flat top pulled into Naval Station Norfolk." The Wasp Amphibious Ready Group and Marine Expeditionary Unit (ARG-MEU) consisted of USS Wasp (LHD 1), USS New York (LPD 21), and USS Oak Hill (LSD 51) as well as the special operations-capable 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
With the Wasp ARG-MEU now back in Norfolk, what Marines are in the Eastern Med prepared to help with the crisis in Syria? The sad answer is there are zero Marine Expeditionary Units in the Eastern Med today and none arriving soon.
Where are the Marines?
Meanwhile, half a world away, China is once again surrounding Taiwan in a powerful show of force. Reuters reports, "China Sends Largest Naval Fleet In Decades To Region, Threat Level Severe, Taiwan Says."
The Maritime Executive reports that China is trying to push the US and allies out of the so-called first island chain.
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China's military has deployed its largest fleet of naval and coast guard vessels in East Asia in three decades, according to Taiwan's defense ministry. No maritime drills have been declared, but massive Chinese maneuvers are under way in waters stretching between Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines and the South China Sea - as well as further out in the Pacific. It appears to be the first time that China's maritime forces have tested out a simultaneous operation throughout the first island chain.
Taiwan put its military on high alert on Monday after detecting a surge of Chinese military activity. The People's Liberation Army (PLA) has declared seven zones for aviation drills just off the coast of the Chinese mainland, and it has been dispatching airborne patrols near Taiwanese airspace, particularly north of the island. Nearly 90 Chinese government vessels - including both China Coast Guard and PLA Navy ships - have been detected up and down the first island chain, according to AFP.
Hsieh Jih-sheng, a Taiwanese defense ministry intelligence official, told reporters on Tuesday that China's navy has set up two cordons: one in the First Island Chain, and a second "wall" further out in the Pacific, blocking areas that U.S. reinforcements would have to transit. "They are sending a very simple message with these two walls: trying to make the Taiwan Strait an internal sea," Hsieh told AFP.
-- The Maritime Executive
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This is the perfect opportunity for the Marine Corps to deploy its new missile units. The Marine Littoral Regiments (MLR) have been the focus of the Marine Corps for the last four years. The MLRs are designed to deter China's naval operations in and around Taiwan by providing small units of Marines with missiles. The idea is to threaten China's navy with destruction if they transit through the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea.
With China expansively operating in and around Taiwan today, this is the perfect opportunity for the Marine Corps to show what the MLRs can do. Deploy the MLRs to Philippine and Japanese islands near Taiwan and then test fire missiles, displace, fire again, and the displace again. That will show the ability of Marine missile units to fire quickly, move to another island, and then fire again. These actions would finally help validate the whole theory of the Marine missile units. According to the theory, China would think twice about its adventurism in the South China Sea.
Where are the Marines?
Even though China right now is operating its Navy on a grand scale throughout the entire region from Taiwan to the Philippines, the US Marines have deployed zero MLR missile units to conduct missile exercises in response. The Marines have not placed any operational missile units on remote Philippine or Japanese islands. The Marines have no plans to test fire missiles, displace to another island, and then fire again.
China is conducting operations to kick the US out of the first island chain. The Marine MLRs were created to deter China from kicking the US out of the first island chain. Yet, no MLR missile units are being deployed to deter China's current actions. Why?
A dictator disposed in Syria is one kind of crisis.
The aggressive actions of China's navy today are another kind of crisis.
The US needs to know that the Marines are ready to instantly deploy an advanced, rapid response force to respond to these and other crises.
Where are the Marines?
The Marine Corps has spent the last four years focused on a misguided plan to recast itself as a defensive force of scattered missile units, instead of a global crisis response force. The result of the experiment is that now the Marine Corps has gained virtually zero active missile capabilities, and has significantly lost crucial combined arms, crisis response capabilities.
While the valor at the heart of the Marine rifleman is as strong and bold as ever, the Marine Corps has become distracted from its duty to organize, train, and equip Marines to "locate, close with and destroy the enemy by fire and maneuver."
Why does the United States need an updated, combined arms, global, crisis response force of Marines? The United States needs its Marine 9-1-1 force because the next crisis is coming, but no-one can be certain where or when it is coming. The next crisis will not be “on anyone’s list of likely crises.” Marines have always promised to be most ready when the Nation is least ready. It is time for the Marine Corps to keep that promise.
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Reuters - 12/10/2024
China Sends Largest Naval Fleet In Decades To Region, Threat Level Severe, Taiwan Says
By Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard
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The Maritime Executive - 12/09/2024
China's Navy Swarms the First Island Chain
https://maritime-executive.com/article/china-s-navy-swarms-the-first-island-chain
Saddest of all is that senior Marines continue to tell Congress and the American people that the Marine Corps is more combat ready than ever. We know better but many others don't.
As a PROUD former member of Command Element 26th MEU (SOC) from July 1987 til 07 Aug 1990, I'm shocked and stunned at the fact that NO single MEU is in the Med or in the Pacific at this time, due to the factors stated in this article... FD2030 has decimated our Corps' MAGTF capabilities and our reactionary capabilities to meet any challenge in "every clime and place"... the lack of amphibs only magnifies this security problem!
Until the past 5 yrs, a MEU was always in these critical AOs and able to respond to any crisis or mission within 6 hrs of the call being made! The SOC ensured this, and made our Corps irreplaceable and a valued asset in the crisis mentioned here... with 3 MEUs on each coast on a rotational OPTEMPO, a MEU in the AOs was ensured and offered assurance and confidence to allies while offering a deterrent and appropriate response to any adversaries. WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED to allow such a criminal lax in our capabilities and ability to continue this as a fulfillment of our Title 10 missions???
The current SecDef, SecNav, CMC, former CMC Berger, and their minions should be subpeonaed and face tough questioning and scrutiny by the US Congress, and subsequently FIRED if applicable and purged as necessary, while immediately implementing VISION2035 and a massive ship building blitz to reverse and restore that which has been forfeited and lost!