Note. This is a must read article. Check it out here. I'm putting this at the top so I can be understood from the start. I need to know more about this concept. A recurring theme has developed at HQMC. They make plans, start down roads but while they're in motion the refrain is that "we need to learn more". It almost like I need to take Colonels and Generals back to phase 1 and teach them what BAMCIS means!
via USNI News.
Asked by USNI News what made him confident in EABO but not confident in the formations that would execute it, he said he had a fair understanding of what a Japan-based MEU or MLR might look like, but that California- and North Carolina-based Marines would need to craft their own kinds of units too to support EABO operations in the environments they’d most likely deploy to.
“I fully embrace the concept of Distributed Maritime Operations the way that the former CNO laid it out and the current CNO embraces it. I think that Littoral Operations in a Contested Environment is something that we have to embrace and be prepared to operate in. Within that, Expeditionary Advance Base Ops, EABO, is a method, is a technique, and it has proven so far in the wargames to be very effective – if you can pull it off. And it’s not easy to do,” Berger told USNI News during the media roundtable.
“So that concept, that method, that technique of EABO poses a number of challenges for an adversary: it complicates their ability to find you and to track you, complicates their ability to engage you, and it also reassures the partners and the allies that you’re trying to work with, because you’re very dispersed among them, you’re with them – not in a standoff mode, you’re in a stand-in mode.”
“So how does that tie in to where we’re not as confident in the construct of a MLR and what the MEU of the future ought to look like? First thing I would ask you to just take onboard with us is just, we are at the point where we’re learning. We are already convinced based on wargames and modeling so far that we have a fairly good idea of what an MLR in III MEF in Japan, based out of Japan and operating in the Pacific, could look like. We have a lot more to learn there and we may absolutely adjust the framework of that in the future. What we’re not as confident in is, what is II MEF in the East Coast, what is I MEF in the West Coast, what should they build? Do they have to be mirror image? Should they look exactly in the same template and the same model? And I’m of the mode at this stage in the learning, no. Our learning should be, what is the best construct that makes sense for their operating environments?” the commandant continued.
“Same with MEUs. We have had one framework, one construct for a MEU: all seven of them had to be mirror image for the last couple of decades because they were largely flowing to the Middle East to do a mission in Central Command. Going forward, what they were originally designed for, where they’re global, now we should have the latitude for a Marine Expeditionary Unit in one place may look different than another Marine Expeditionary Unit. So when I say less confident, what I’m trying to communicate is, A), they don’t have to all be mirror image, we should be able to tailor them to their operating environment, and B), we don’t want to create all looking one way and then undo that two years from now when we discover that that’s not the best way to construct it in Camp Lejeune, it should be a little bit different. So we’ll use the ones in Japan as kind of the test bed, we’ll learn from that. The other two parts of the Fleet Marine Force will watch, will observe, and then we’ll figure out how they ought to be constructed, and it could be the same or it could be different.”
Read the entire article (link at the top). Once you've done that then come back and let's play a quarantine game.
Everytime the Commandant says "learning" or "figure out" or "adjust" or "not as confident" take a shot of Jack Daniels or your favorite drink (gotta be alcohol to make it funny).
If you're not buzzed then you're an alcoholic and I recommend you get help.
Seriously though.
Do you remember The 3 Block War? Do you remember Ship To Objective Maneuver?
They all made sense. They were all figured out. They all were clearly defined, had the support of everyone involved because they made SENSE and we knew what weapon systems were needed before it was rolled out.
We're on a path where we keep getting these concepts that are being instituted on the run, change constantly and have the hallmark of leadership saying that they need to learn more while they're trying to sell it to the Corps.
For the love of all that's Holy can we please take a beat and get ourselves sorted out? Take the time to flesh this thing out from A to Z and back again. Test it in simulations. Test it in the field. And then once you've done all that come back with a plan that you can believe in and you are beyond learning whether or not it works, have full confidence in and know what we need to buy/organize to win on future battlefields.
Ever since Amos the Commandant's office has been seriously adrift. I don't know what's going on but it needs to get its bearing before it wrecks a great organization.
As things stand now I'm sure of only one thing. There is no clarity in the Marine Corps. We have taken unwarranted criticism and institutionalized it. Amos used it as a talking point to get his airplane and for some reason its become ingrained in the officer corps...especially the flag officer club. I don't understand it but they truly believed that second Army bullshit and took it to heart.
So what will the future be? I'm betting the end of the Marine Corps. We won't do forcible entry. Berger doesn't even talk about it. We definitely won't be able to assist the Army if another Desert Storm type situation arrives.
So what will we have? Airplanes, missiles and tiltrotors. The Navy can take our planes. The Army can do the missile work and I guess the Coast Guard can use our tiltrotors.
Berger is laying the groundwork for the end of the Marine Corps.
