Gazette Article Topic: Future Force Design & Modernization

Balancing readiness and modernization

Divisions between the Marine Corps and Navy, divestments for Force Design 2030, and a rapidly rising China have created a situation that threatens the ability of the Marine Corps to be able to complete its mission. While Force Design 2030 is still in the transition phase, the Marine Corps needs to find a way in the here and now to be able to respond to a diverse array of potential threats, vastly increase its cooperation with the Navy, and be able to meet the needs of the country as its premier force in readiness. 

At the start of the Ukrainian-Russian war in 2022, European Command asked for a Marine Corps Amphibious Readiness Group (ARG) to deploy to Europe to be a deterrence to the aggression that was rapidly unfolding. However, the Marine Corps was unable to fulfill that request. The ARG—comprised of USS Kearsarge (LHD-3), USS Arlington (LPD-24), and USS Gunston Hall (LSD-44)—were unable to be deployed until a month after they were asked to, with the latter ship still arriving later than the first two due to maintenance issues.1

Even more recently, the Commandant of the Marine Corps testified that the Marines were unable to send a crisis response force to Turkey after the disastrous earthquake because we did not have the ships, saying, “We didn’t have a Marine Expeditionary Unit, a MEU, nearby that could respond … I owe the Secretary of Defense, the President—we Joint Chiefs owe them options … all the time. Here, I felt like the best option, we couldn’t offer them because we have the Marines and the equipment and they’re trained, we didn’t have the ships.”2 Here, the Commandant is explicitly admitting that the Marine Corps has fallen short of the Nation’s expectations of them.

These two cases are concerning symptoms of a larger problem at bay in the Marine Corps and the Navy—and they hold clues about the readiness of our Service to counter the rising threats in both Europe and the Indo-Pacific region. Without a doubt, the MEU and the ARG are the core of the Marine Corps’s capability. These allow the Marine Corps to be the President’s crisis response force, a capability none of the other conventional Services have. A great example of everything offered by the MEU is in 1983 when a MEU headed to Beirut diverted halfway through its journey and conducted an invasion of Grenada to help save American students. Immediately after, they proceeded directly to Lebanon, where they assisted in humanitarian operations.3

The flexibility and versatility offered by the MEU, to rapidly transition from one mission to the next seamlessly, is the great strength of the Corps. But the Marine Corps can be the Nation’s crisis response force for one reason: American sea power. Marines embark on Navy amphibious assault ships, land on beaches using Navy LCUs and LCACs, and conduct flight operations off Navy flight decks using Navy landing officers. Thus, American sea power and the ability of the Marines to project power requires having the requisite number of ships. Without them, Force Design 2030 simply cannot take shape.

The threats facing this country are modern and rapidly evolving. President Xi has instructed his country’s armed forces to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027, with some reports indicating that they could invade as early as 2024.4 Yet, the equipment the Marine Corps needs to counter a potential conflict is not operationally ready, and the Navy and Marine Corps are at an impasse as to who should provide it for them. The end product of Force Design 2030 creates a lighter, more mobile, faster responding Marine Corps capable of operating as a stand-in force inside the enemy’s weapon engagement zone.5

However, Force Design 2030 only works if they have the ships to do so. Divesting our tanks and reorganizing our artillery, aviation, and infantry to meet the needs of the coming threats are correct. However, this requires the Navy to have ships that are both practical and survivable in a contested area to bring Marines to the fight. For the last twenty years, the Marine Corps has been in sustained land combat, operating well away from the littoral zone in two landlocked countries. Those who criticize Force Design 2030 fail to see that the last twenty years of sustained land conflict have driven this divide between the Marine Corps and the Navy, and now we see the result of that. As such, the partnership with the Navy has been eroded and summarily forgotten in many regards.

There is now a divide between what the Marine Corps needs and the priorities of the Navy. This is illustrated in the fact that the number one item on the fiscal year 2023 budget request of the Marine Corps is amphibious warships, yet amphibious landing ships are being retired faster than they can be procured. Landing Dock Ships (LSDs) are on track to be entirely out of service by 2027. Additionally, the Navy has stated that the San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock-32 (LPD-32) would be the last LPD produced and they would be ending that line of ship, a line which was initially expected to go until LPD-42.6 The former Commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen Berger, stated that the requirements of the Marine Corps is 31 amphibious assault ships, whereas this current plan to end the line of LPDs and LSDs would bring that number down to 25 in the coming years, leaving the Marine Corps at least 6 ships short of being mission capable.7 Obviously, the Navy must make budget choices, and rightly so. The nuclear navy, including our submarines and carriers, rightly takes many resources and financing to acquire and maintain. However, the Navy should also understand that their relationship with the Marine Corps is symbiotic; it is not a zero-sum game.

Money invested in the Marine Corps is not necessarily money lost for the Navy. The Navy is not simply driving the Marines across the ocean and dropping them off on an island to conduct independent running operations. The actions the Marine Corps will be taking will help to protect naval shipping, including providing bases on which to refuel, and provide a defense in depth that will serve to protect our biggest naval assets like our carrier fleet. From the expeditionary advanced base operations handbook itself,

In order to enhance the speed of deployment and minimize infrastructure and logistical support requirements, Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations (EABO) will exploit passive defenses to the degree prudent and practical. Dispersion, decoys, cover, camouflage, and concealment will all be maximized to preclude effective enemy targeting of EAB-hosted assets.8

We see incredibly similar messaging that mirrors this within the Marine Corps’ own warfighting doctrine, MCDP 1, where it says, “We avoid enemy strength and focus our efforts against enemy weakness with the object of penetrating the enemy system since pitting strength against weakness reduces casualties and is more likely to yield decisive results.”9

This is exactly what EABO is intended to do. The nature of warfare has changed. With the onset of 21st-century weapons such as hypersonic (carrier killer) missiles, an aircraft carrier anywhere within that weapons’ engagement zone presents an inviting target. Operating inside that weapons engagement zone, we seek to disrupt the enemy’s system and out cycle the enemy—with the goal of avoiding taking casualties ourselves and inflicting maximum casualties on the enemy. China itself has even taken notice of this, admitting that the EABO concept will create, “a dense, multi-directional intersecting kill zone over large areas west of the island chain.”10 This EABO concept will help to navigate and hopefully avoid a potential war of attrition in the South China Sea where instead of trading an aircraft carrier for an aircraft carrier, our naval forces can cycle at a higher tempo and outmaneuver the adversary before becoming targets themselves. 

This begs the question, how can the Navy and Marine Corps team better cooperate to achieve mission readiness while meeting both the needs of the Marine Corps as well as all the other needs of the Navy? Eastern Europe is already at war, and as such, the timeline to become mission-ready is rapidly dwindling. Training in the Navy and Marine Corps must change to reflect the cohesion necessary in the coming fight. Expeditionary advanced base operations create a web of information, which is shared continuously between Marines, ships, satellites, aircraft, and commanders to better shape the battle space. However, this requires new tactics, techniques, and procedures, which means the Navy needs to understand Marine Corps capabilities and the Marine Corps needs to understand Naval capabilities, specifically, ship-related capabilities. The Navy cannot support the Marine Corps if they misunderstand our capabilities, and likewise, the Marine Corps cannot provide the Navy with the intelligence and data that they will need if we do not understand the operational requirements—in other words: the how we fit into the bigger picture. Currently, at The Basic School, hands-on training with the Navy is limited to an amphibious exercise, which is one day in Norfolk, VA. However, the interaction is limited to LCACs, LCUs, and LSDs. If we are expected to be integrating extensively with the Navy, however, it would be beneficial for young Marine officers to also be exposed to and learn the capabilities of Naval warships, such as cruisers and destroyers, as well all types of other amphibious assault ships.

In short, we need to know what the Navy needs to complete its mission. They should also have a deeper depth understanding of how those forces are employed, and how they work to support amphibious operations. This would allow young officers to get a better understanding of what the future battlespace may look like. Additionally, a majority of our guest speakers have all been Marine Corps generals and officers. If we are a naval force in readiness, then more Navy officers need to be included in these discussions so we can ask questions, and therefore better learn from them, and they learn from us. Joint interactions allow us to better understand each other capabilities and missions, which help to drive cooperation.

Lastly, The Tentative Manual for Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations should be required for reading and discussion at The Basic School and concepts from that should influence the curriculum at MOS schools, especially the schools that are highly impacted by this, such as logistics, artillery, infantry, intelligence, and air defense. The bridge between the Navy and Marine Corps needs to be seamless for Force Design 2030 to work as intended, and as officers at The Basic School, at the very least we can do our part to make sure that happens.  

This transition zone is both an exciting and a dangerous time for the Navy and Marine Corps. The less time spent in this area of transition, the better. Just like in the transition from the offense to the defense, we are at our most vulnerable if we spend too long in this phase. If China closes its shipping lanes tomorrow, if Russia starts to drop bombs on Poland, or if Iran decides to flex its nuclear muscle, does the United States have the ability to respond? These questions must be answered, and if necessary, a hard look in the mirror must be taken. This response will require intestinal fortitude in the highest level of leadership. It will require admitting in front of Congress, the Nation, and most importantly, our fellow Marines that our force is not yet ready. The reputation of the Marine Corps was not given to us just by being Marines. It has been earned over many generations, and any time that we do not live up to that reputation we disrespect those who came before us and gave the highest devotion to duty. From the lowest level to the highest, there must be a sense of urgency in fixing these current issues of our operational shipping capability, and our lack of Navy/Marine Corps team mentality so that we give our Marines and our sailors the best to survive and win on the 21st-century battlefield. If we do not, the next force design’s lessons will only be written in blood by the failures of this one.

>1stLt Smith is a Student Naval Aviator currently assigned to Training Squadron 2 (VT-2) Doerbirds at NAS Whiting Field. He graduated from the University of Arizona in 2021 and graduated from The Basic School in May 2023.

Notes

1. Mallory Shelbourne, “Marines Couldn’t Meet Request to Surge to Europe Due to Strain on Amphibious Fleet,” USNI News, April 26, 2022, https://news.usni.org/2022/04/26/marines-couldnt-meet-request-to-surge-to-europe-due-to-strain-on-amphibious-fleet.

2. Conor M. Kennedy and Scott E Stephan, “The PLA Is Contemplating the Meaning of Force Design,” Proceedings 149, No. 4 (2023).

3. Gary Wilson, William A. Woods, and Michael D. Wyly, “Send in the Marines? Reconsider Force Design 2030 Beforehand,” Defense News, Defense News, August 22, 2022, https://www.defensenews.com/opinion/commentary/2022/08/04/send-in-the-marines-reconsider-force-design-2030-beforehand.

4. John Culver, “How We Would Know When China Is Preparing to Invade Taiwan,” Carnegie: Endowment for International Peace, October 3, 2022, https://carnegieendowment.org/2022/10/03/how-we-would-know-when-china-is-preparing-to-invade-taiwan-pub-88053.

5. Gen David H. Berger, Force Design 2030, (Washington, DC: 2020). 

6. “Marines Couldn’t Meet Request to Surge to Europe Due to Strain on Amphibious Fleet.”

7. Ibid. 

8. Art Corbett, “Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations (EABO) Handbook Version 1.1,” Marine Corps Association, June 1, 2018, https://www.mca-marines.org/wp-content/uploads/Expeditionary-Advanced-Base-Operations-EABO-handbook-1.1.pdf.

9. Headquarters Marine Corps, MCDP 1, Warfighting, (Washington, DC: 1997).

10. “The PLA Is Contemplating the Meaning of Force Design.”

An unmanned platform for sea denial

The Marine littoral regiment (MLR) has been lauded as a stand-in-force capable of conducting sea denial operations.1 However, the MLR’s ability to close self-contained sea denial kill chains currently is overly reliant on distant, resource-constrained naval and joint support. To remedy this problem, this article advocates the MLR obtain an unmanned air platform for target acquisition in organic sea-denial operations. First, this article will review the operational context and define the constraints of both landbased and naval aviation in supporting the MLR. Next, it will describe the MLR’s current capabilities and advantages in expeditionary advanced base operations (EABO). Lastly, the article will propose the capabilities needed for an unmanned platform to support MLR sea-denial operations, provide a use case, and considerations for its adoption. 

Operational Context
The source of alarm for American military power in the Western Pacific is China’s anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) system, a sheaf of sea, air, and landbased ballistic and cruise missiles extending outward from the Chinese coast, and at the heart of China’s A2/AD system is a recognition of the American way of war. As the Chinese Communist Party and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) witnessed the overwhelming defeat of Iraq in the Gulf War via precision munitions and advanced communication technology, a new strategy was necessary to prevent a similar defeat in a future campaign for the PLA historic objective: Taiwan. This consisted of a military build-up of rocket forces, air forces, and long-range scouting capabilities to strike U.S. forces in forward locations where it can build up combat power or the sea lanes that transport said combat power. Today, American bases in the Western Pacific fall under the looming threat of over 4,000 missiles that can impose significant costs to American air and naval forces alike.

Landbased Aviation Constraints
The PLA’s A2/AD poses a significant threat to landbased aviation in the Western Pacific. If hostilities broke out, the PLA could launch a variety of missile systems at airbases, damaging or destroying hangars, runways, aircraft, and vital supplies like fuel and ordnance.2 Landbased aviation in the Western Pacific would be hard-pressed to provide support without the necessary facilities and logistics to support them. Furthermore, joint aircraft, including Marine Corps aircraft, are tasked via the air tasking cycle, a joint 72-hour process of assigning, allocating, and apportioning all aircraft to support varying missions within a joint operations area, which makes them susceptible to competing missions. Air Force, Marine Corps, and Army ISR aircraft will be responsible for more than just missions in support of the MLR. 

Distant support is also dubious. The Air Force boasts a considerable long-range ISR and bomber force—both of which could theoretically support the MLR’s sea denial operations. However, most long-range ISR and bomber aircraft are stationed in the United States, and without forward basing, would face similar constraints. For example, in a Taiwan contingency, B-52s launching from the CONUS were calculated to suffer a severe sortie generation loss of only one sortie per aircraft every 48 hours.3 Extrapolating the challenges to other continental aircraft, the sortie generation rate would not be high enough to reliably depend on for persistent surveillance; additionally, these aircraft would also need to support various missions that would further limit available sorties to support the MLR.

Naval Aviation Constraints
In modern naval operations, the aircraft carrier has been the striking and sensing arm of the Navy while surface combatants have provided close-in defense of air and subsurface threats for the carrier. With the PLA’s A2/AD system able to target ships and aircraft from 1,000 miles to over 3,000 miles,  and due to the quantity and variety of missiles, A2/AD would pose a serious threat in wartime that the carrier strike group must mitigate.4 To do so, the CSG must sail between 1,000 to 1,500 nautical miles away from the Chinese coast, where the variety of anti-ship missiles declines from six variants to only two—the H-6-bomber launched YJ-12s and landbased DF-26s—and subsequently reducing the total number of missile systems capable of targeting it to within a manageable threshold of the CSG’s air defenses.5 As a consequence, naval aviation suffers and constrains the MLR in receiving necessary support for its sea denial mission. 

The Navy’s special mission aircraft are essential to multiple kill chains which is their fatal flaw vis-à-vis the MLR.6 The E-2D is a carrier-launched early warning and control aircraft that can detect and track air targets as well as conduct wide-area surface searches. In this capacity, it acts as the eyes of the carrier to scout for air and surface threats, and it also networks ship and airborne sensors into a singular picture through the Cooperative Engagement Capability. With a common air picture, the Cooperative Engagement Capability enables ships and aircraft to fire at a target with high-quality data consolidated from various radars, which increases accuracy, range, and reaction time.7 Assigning the E2-D to a mission outside of its doctrinal use, like supporting the MLR, would jeopardize the survivability of the carrier and the wider fleet; additionally, its few numbers means the loss of even one, whether by enemy fire or poor tasking, could be catastrophic. The P-8 is the Navy’s primary means of locating submarines by deploying sonobuoys, launching weapons, and collecting and synthesizing track data from various sources. Like the E2-D, the P-8 is too few and exquisite a collections platform to risk far forward of the fleet. Unlike the E2-D, the P-8 is a landbased aircraft, so it will launch from airfields more distant than carrier-based aircraft drastically impacting its sortie rates. Consequently, the P-8 will be hard-pressed to support both the fleet’s and the MLR’s sea denial operations. The E-2 and P-8’s central roles in multiple kill chains make them indispensable, and unreliable for support to the MLR. 

The Navy also operates the MH-60R to support sea-control and sea-denial operations. The rotary-wing platform is designed to provide detection and targeting of submarines and ships for the CSG. As a rotary-wing platform, however, the MH-60R is designed for close-in sensing and striking of surface and subsurface threats and thus has limited range to support any operations outside a certain diameter around the carrier—if the CSG were even willing to part with its vital support. Although as a vertical take-off and landing aircraft it would fit well in expeditionary advanced base operations, it supports up to twelve mission sets, which already would spread the numerous aircraft across the fleet thin.8

The Navy and Marine Corps’ tactical aircraft (TACAIR), specifically the F/A-18 and F-35C, face the most intensive constraints. As the primary means of conducting anti-surface warfare, TACAIR sorties will be spread thin supporting the CSG’s degradation of A2/AD. Tactical aircraft missions will vary from defending against H-6 bombers and DF-26s, finding and striking PLA surface combatants, and escorting high-value airborne assets to combating PLA carrier aircraft, straining the support available to the MLR. Tactical aircraft that could support the MLR will not be responsive and extremely costly. Due to the distances that the CSG will operate at, TACAIR would be required to conduct a three-to-six-hour sortie to support operations in the first island chain. The length of the sorties requires tanker support, fixed loadouts, more maintenance, strained and tired manpower, and more that the Navy must contend with in their own sea control efforts. The MLR will require higher fidelity intelligence to justify TACAIR assuming such risks.  

MLR Sea Denial and Its Constraints
As a stand-in force, the MLR is expected to disrupt the adversary through reconnaissance, counter-reconnaissance, and sea-denial operation in the littoral environment in support of a maritime campaign. For fires, the MLR can organically employ the Naval Strike Missile from EABs and command and control multi-domain fires and effects via the MLR’s Alpha Command, which consists of a Fire Support Coordination Center, the LAAB’s Fires and Air Direction Center, an Intel operations center, the Regimental S-3, and regimental commander. Within the Alpha Command, the Fires and Air Direction Center can control and coordinate air support for long-range surface strikes while employing distributed tactical air control elements and air defense systems and sensors, like the Marine Air Defense Integrated System and the TPS-80 groundbased air surveillance radar. The EABs prove resilient to A2/AD for two reasons: survivability and resources. Relative to air and sea, and due to the vegetation, dense population centers, and complex topography of the FIC, the littorals prove challenging for radar, electro-optical/infrared (EO/IO) sensors, and space sensors to find targets.

When finding ground targets, radar platforms face multiple challenges. When radar energy is scattered by objects other than its intended target, also known as clutter, the radio wave can be attenuated, meaning the waves are scattered or absorbed in such a way that reduces the intensity of the wave and, as a consequence, the quality of the information gleaned.9 At sea, attenuation can be caused by weather effects like fog, rain, clouds, dust, and more.10 In the littorals, the clutter would be two-fold, with weather effects as well as vegetation, man-made infrastructure, topography, and more that could further attenuate radar energy.11 For high-frequency fire control and targeting radars, higher frequencies suffer more attenuation, which complicates finding a target and receiving track-quality data to fire with.12 The amount of clutter in the littorals offers a unique opportunity for EABs to conceal themselves from radar systems and remain resilient against adversary targeting. Littoral clutter also offers considerable concealment from EO/IO sensors. Electro-optical/infrared sensors benefit from lower altitudes to generate higher quality imagery to satisfy identification requirements, and—due to the dense environment of the littorals—EO/IO-equipped aircraft will have to descend to altitudes that will expose them to the LAAB’s layered air defenses. Once detected, an EAB can reduce their signature to avoid detection, employ decoys, engage the aircraft, displace to an alternate position at the first available opportunity, or a combination therein. 

Despite their ubiquity, satellite observation is still a resource-intensive undertaking. Most remote sensing satellites orbit in a sun-synchronous orbit. Sun-synchronous orbits are polar orbits that pass overhead any given place on the earth’s surface at the same local mean time daily. This makes the satellites’ flight paths and on-station times not only predictable and momentary but also limits the area that can be surveilled, particularly in a region as vast as the Pacific. Additionally, military surveillance satellites are built with target sets in mind. For example, the Jianbing Ocean surveillance program of the Yaogan satellite series is designed to collect electromagnetic emissions of aircraft carriers like aircraft launches, communications transmissions, and radar emissions.13 As subsets of the PLA’s remote sensing satellites are designed with specific targets in mind, the breadth of targets that they are optimized to observe is limited and restrains the quality and quantity of observation that the PLA can employ against U.S. forces, including the MLR. Much like other sensors, with signature management and mobility, the MLR can defeat such systems.   

It is unlikely that the MLR will be able to defeat adversarial ISR wholesale—and that is part of the appeal. One of the critical functions of joint fire support is to synchronize and optimize very limited resources, and although adversary A2/AD is robust, it too must adhere to similar tenants.14 If enough EABs occupy the first island chain capable of firing on Chinese air, surface, and subsurface forces while multiple Carriers steam across the Pacific to do the same, the PLA is faced with a dilemma: which target is the priority? Whichever answer the PLA chooses exposes them to resource constraints in targeting the other. For example, if they prioritize reconnaissance efforts in finding expeditionary advanced bases, using a combination of radar systems, reconnaissance aircraft, and satellites to target them, they now have fewer resources to employ against the Navy. By drawing Chinese attention and resources toward the first-island chain, stand-in forces bind targeting resources that may otherwise be used against naval and air forces, granting them critical maneuver and decision space. To do so, the MLR must pose a credible threat, of which its sea denial kill chains are the crux. Yet, due to competing missions and lower sortie generation rates, the MLR will need to meet higher intelligence requirements to justify support for its kill chains, which due to the reliance on external ISR support from the exact forces the MLR is supporting, will prove difficult. Thus, the credibility of the MLR hinges on acquiring an unmanned aerial platform capable of vertical take-off and landing, equipped with a surface search radar, link-16 capabilities, electro-optical/infrared sensors, and with the option to deploy sonobuoys. 

Capabilities
An MLR intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance asset, herein referred to as “the asset,” would be a boon for both the MLR and the larger Joint Force and enable the MLR to organically fulfill its sea-denial mission. First, the asset must fit within the logistical framework of the MLR. To do so, it must be capable of vertical take-off and landing to operate from dispersed EABs as well as naval vessels ranging from full-scale amphibs to smaller ships like the landing ship medium. As an unmanned system, the logistics requirements and operations costs would be lessened. In a cost comparison, unmanned platforms were cheaper on average than manned platforms in both acquisition costs and flight cost per hour by 200 million dollars and 60,000 dollars, respectively.15 Cheaper operations and acquisition costs allow additional funds to be allocated to procuring more systems and preserving sustainable maintenance cycles. However, the asset must not carry armaments. If the asset were equipped with armaments, its logistics chain would become needlessly cumbersome, adding specialized personnel, equipment, and ordinance that would slow down its operations and bloat the MLR’s logistics footprint. 

For the asset to support the MLR in command and control of multi-domain fires, it requires multiple sensors and communications capabilities, primarily a surface search for mobile targets at sea. Once the asset paints a target with its radar, track data is generated and then can be transmitted via Link-16 to Alpha Command, where the track can be analyzed to discern the category (merchant or combatant), type (patrol or destroyer), and class (Renhai or Luyang) of the targeted ship.16 The track data generated from the asset’s radar can also prove useful in anti-submarine warfare by detecting surfaced submarines. If a surfaced submarine is detected with the asset radar, it can force the submarine to dive prematurely or be at risk of being targeted while transmitting the track data to a higher-echelon asset, like a P-8 which will have a more holistic ASW picture.17 With sonobuoys equipped, the asset can rely on cueing from the P-8 or its surface search radar to deploy sonobuoys in maritime chokepoints and likely transit lanes of submarines. 

With EO/IO sensors, the asset can confirm intelligence requirements set by the Target Engagement Authority, which is “the authority and responsibility to engage targets [that] rests with the [Joint Force Commander] responsible for the operational area.”18 With EO/IO sensors, the asset can provide the MLR with the positive identification requirements necessary to conduct a strike that includes the ship hull, name, and flag.19 Due to the asset’s maneuverability and speed, it can gain vital proximity to the target to glean such information while simultaneously forcing the target to divert air defense and reconnaissance resources to target the asset rather than other friendly forces.20 In tandem with the asset radar, the asset’s EO/IO sensors satisfy positive identification requirements for strike coordination, which with high enough situational awareness and trust, could encourage the TEA to delegate to a lower level, which would doubtlessly accelerate MLR kill chains.21 

The capability that binds the asset, the Alpha Command, and the Joint Force together is Link-16, a jam-resistant, high-capacity data link that disseminates radar, sonar, electronic warfare, and other positioning data to users.22 With a Link 16-terminal, the asset can push track data generated from its radar and pull track data from other Link-enabled sensors, like F/A-18s, F-35s, naval ships, and more—ensuring reliable access to a theater common operational picture (COP) for the Alpha Command. The asset can not only ensure access to the theater-level COP for the Alpha Command but also to the MLR’s other Link-enabled EABs beyond the Alpha Command’s line-of-sight by acting as a node to not only disseminate awareness but also to ensure the economic use of force by deconflicting fires for friendly forces.23

The combination of the asset’s capabilities, the radar, EO/IO sensors, and Link-16 would support the prerequisites for the MLR’s anti-ship missile fires to launch. Through the radar, the asset generates primary targeting data, identifying the type of ship, its class, location, and other relevant targeting data. Leveraging its maneuverability and speed, the asset can gain vital proximity to the target and employ its EO/IO sensors to confirm the information as well as glean more. All the while, the Alpha Command is processing the sensor data received via Link-16 while it simultaneously populates on a theater-level COP for the Joint Force’s situational awareness. At this juncture, the TEA decides to engage the target with the MLR’s anti-ship fires in combination with joint missile fire. Once target engagement is approved, the Alpha Command can relay the targeting data received by the asset either via a J-series message to launch platforms and their Fires Direction Centers have a Link-16 terminal or through a K-series message on the Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System. The Fires Direction Center can conduct the necessary checks and gunnery to launch the Naval Strike Missile while the Alpha Command conducts the air and waterspace deconfliction for the missile’s flightpath. Once both are confirmed and cleared, the Alpha Command provides approval to launch. While the asset is still on station, it can provide target updates to inbound missile salvos, if necessary, as the high-quality track data it generates allows network-enabled missiles to adjust course until they reach a certain radius from their aimpoint that they can detect and target on their own, otherwise known as a kill radius.24 During the engagement, the asset can provide a means to assess effects that would inform the TEA’s divert or abort decisions. After the engagement, the asset can continue to monitor to assess effects and support reattack decisions.

Once the engagement is completed and the desired effects achieved, the asset can either continue to monitor, repeating the above targeting cycle for follow-on targets, or return to base. With either a Group 3 or Group 4 unmanned platform, the asset could monitor throughout the MLR’s zone of fire with an eight-to-ten-hour loiter time, making it available for multiple missions within one on-station window. However, once an MLR asset has landed and completed its tasking for the day, if acquired in sufficient quantity, another can take its place. With enough platforms, the asset could support 24-hour operations, which will likely be necessary in the scale of conflict envisioned in the Western Pacific.

Conditions
It is well known in scholarship that the intersection of technological employment and force employment, onset by new organizational approaches, pays dividends for increases in military power, and the asset is no different.25 To profit from this dividend, the MLR must form a Littoral Scouting Squadron (LSS) under its command. This LSS would be task-organized in similar fashion as the MEF’s VMU Squadrons, purpose-built to operate and maintain the asset while training the requisite personnel in its unique employment and mission. With access to adjacent Battalion-level staffs, the LSS would have access to a myriad of experts, from Air Command and Control and Air Ground Support in the LAAB to the Fires expertise in the LCT. This creates a coherent kill chain organic to the MLR: The LSS to sense, the LCT to shoot, and the LAAB to connect them. Alternatively, the asset could be operated and maintained at the regimental S-2, provided they have the manning and training available to effectively operate it. If feasible, adopting an existing platform, like the Navy’s MQ-8 or similar platform, would shorten the learning curve for the MLR by reducing procurement costs and tapping into a well of established operational experience. This structure provides the Joint Force a holistic option for organic and external sea-denial kill chains that alleviate the distance and resource constraints that the current MLR structure would suffer from.  

Conclusion: Sense and Make Sense
Anti-access/area-denial imposes extensive costs on forward basing and ships alike, leaving naval and air forces to fight their way into a Western Pacific conflict under such challenging conditions that ready ISR support to Stand-In Forces will be strained. Without the asset, the MLR will be unable to complete its own sea-denial kill chains, and with it, the MLR can sense and make sense of its own battlespace. The marriage of the MLR’s mobility and survivability and the asset’s scouting capabilities, the PLA is placed in a resource and targeting dilemma that makes for a credible and lethal threat. 

>Capt Costello is an Air Support Control Officer and Chinese Foreign Area Officer. He is currently stationed at the American Institute in Taiwan on In-Region Training.

>>Capt Muniz is an Air Support Control Officer and Weapons and Tactics Instructor. He is currently in the Individual Ready Reserve.

Notes

1. Mallory Shelbourne, “Balikatan 23 Features New Marine Littoral Force in First Major Joint Exercise,” USNI News, April 12, 2023, https://news.usni.org/2023/04/12/balikatan-23-features-new-marine-littoral-force-in-first-major-joint-exercise.

2. Chris Dougherty, “Buying Time: Logistics for a New American Way of War,” CNAS, April 13, 2023, https://www.cnas.org/press/press-release/buying-time-logistics-for-a-new-american-way-of-war.

3. Ibid. 

4. China Power Team, “How Are China’s Land-Based Conventional Missile Forces Evolving?” China Power, September 21, 2020, https:/chinapower.csis.org/conventional-missiles/; and Lawrence “Sid” Trevethan, “The PLA Rocket Force’s Conventional Missiles,” Proceedings, April 2023, https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2023/april/pla-rocket-forces-conventional-missiles.

5. Dmitry Filipoff, “Fighting DMO, Pt. 8,” CIMSEC, May 1, 2023, https://cimsec.org/fighting-dmo-pt-8-chinas-anti-ship-firepower-and-mass-firing-schemes.

6. Kamilla Gunzinger, “Scale, Scope, Speed & Survivability: Winning the Kill Chain Competition,” fix, track, target, engage, and assess—that enable planners to build and task forces for combat operations. The U.S. military has long relied upon its superior ability to rapidly close kill chains against adversaries. This advantage is now at risk. China has developed countermeasures to obstruct or collapse U.S. kill chains, which could lead to combat failures that have devastating, long-term consequences for the security of the United States and its allies and partners, https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json} Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, May 3, 2023, https://mitchellaerospacepower.org/scale-scope-speed-survivability-winning-the-kill-chain-competition.

7. Naval Sea Systems Command Office of Corporate Communication, “The Cooperative Engagement Capability,” Navy.mil, October 14, 2021, https://www.navy.mil/Resources/Fact-Files/Display-FactFiles/Article/2166802/cec-cooperative-engagement-capability.

8. Naval Air Systems Command, “MH-60R Seahawk | NAVAIR,” NAVAIR, n.d., https://www.navair.navy.mil/product/MH-60R-Seahawk.

9. Ibid.

10. Zaha Ria, “Basic Radar Principles and General Characteristics,” Academia, n.d.,

https://www.academia.edu/23718962/CHAPTER_1_BASIC_RADAR_PRINCIPLES_

AND_GENERAL_CHARACTERISTICS.

11. Stephen Biddle, Military Power: Explaining

Victory and Defeat in Modern Battle (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006). 

12. Ibid. 

13. Henk Smid, “An Analysis of Chinese Remote Sensing Satellites,” The Space Review, September 22, 2022, https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4453/1.

14. Department of Defense, JP 3-09, Joint Fire Support, (Washington, DC: 2019). 

15. Congressional Budget Office, “Usage Patterns and Costs of Unmanned Aerial Systems | Congressional Budget Office,” Congressional Budget Office, June 2021, https://www.cbo.gov/publication/57260.

16. Department of Defense, MTTP for AOMSW, (Washington, DC: 2008). 

17. Michael Glynn, Airborne Anti-Submarine Warfare: From the First World War to the Present Day (Philadelphia: Frontline Books, 2022).

18. JP 3-09.

19. MTTP for AOMSW.

20. Dmitry Filipoff, “Fighting DMO, Pt. 7,” CIMSEC, April 17, 2023, https://cimsec.org/fighting-dmo-pt-7-the-future-of-the-aircraft-carrier-in-distributed-warfighting.

21. JP 3-09.

22. Northrop Grumman, Understanding Voice and Data Link Networking, (San Diego: Northrup Grumman, 2014). 

23. JP 3-09.

24. Herzinger and Doyle, Carrier Killer: China’s Anti-Ship Ballistic Missiles and Theater of Operations in the Early 21st Century, (Everett: Helion and Company, 2022).

25. Michael Horowitz, The Diffusion of Military Power, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010). 

Training opportunities in Alaska

The former Commandant of the Marine Corps (CMC), Gen Berger, released guidance to the Marine Corps with the publication of Training and Education 2030. The publication directs the Marine Corps to discover new venues for training that support every clime and place: “Training must be focused on winning in combat in the most challenging conditions and operating environments. Going forward, we need to explore options and leverage opportunities to train Marines in every clime and place.”1 Alaska was identified as a location requiring further exploration, and the document asked what the Marine Corps’s options are for expanding unit and Service-level training into Alaska to utilize existing multi-domain capable training ranges and venues.2 Sending Marines to Alaska has been discussed many times over the years. The Army acquired a cold weather training facility in Alaska called the Northern Warfare Training Center in Black Rapids, AK. China’s recent airspace breach over the United States started in Alaska with a high-altitude balloon equipped with surveillance antennas and optics. Russia and China conducted combined training near Alaska. First reported by the Wall Street Journal, there were eleven Chinese and Russian ships off the coast of Alaska in August of 2023. The inability of the Navy and Marine Corps to stage, train, and deploy rapidly to Alaska is a strategic gap in the Pacific for the Navy and Marine Corps.

Gen Neller, the 37th CMC, tried to explore Alaska as a future training venue for the Marine Corps. In a December 2017 interview with Military.com, Gen Neller confirmed that the Marine Corps was “exploring ways to add an Alaska location to the currently limited array of options for cold weather training.”3 Gen Neller said, “The one thing Alaska has now is land and space. [The Army has] put a lot of money into their training facilities up there, so we’re looking at how we can take advantage of that … particularly in line with mountain operations and cold weather.” Alaska provides locations to launch and recover an amphibious ready group in the Pacific. Alaska also provides an alternate location to displace in the Pacific away from the island chains in case of a conflict. Alaska supports the focus on the Indo-Pacific and gives robust locations for units operating in the Pacific to train such as the Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex (JPARC).4

A Better Mountain Warfare Training Center
SgtMaj Daniel E. Mangrum authored an article published by the United States Naval Institute in March 2019 titled, “The Marine Corps Needs a Better Mountain Warfare Training Center.”5 In the article, SgtMaj Mangrum discussed the limitations of the size of the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center (MCMWTC). “Limitations include the Corps’ inability to accommodate MEB-level exercises and constraints on training with mechanized vehicles and combined-arms live fire. The Service has tried to supplement MCMWTC training by sending Marines to other Service installations, such as Camp Ethan Allen in Jericho, VT, or Fort McCoy in WI. These locations do not fully mitigate the limitations, however, thereby denying Marines the large-scale quality training they must have.”6

Alaska is not just for cold weather training. The airspace that Alaska provides can support testing of many weapons systems, with limited aircraft traffic. This kind of airspace offers an opportunity for training with missiles. The Marine Corps is buying medium-range missiles, and Alaska’s airspace provides multiple options for testing and training with these missiles. In 1957, the Army transferred all its cold weather training to Alaska. The schools included the Arctic School, Arctic Indoctrination School, and Cold Weather and Mountain School. Training throughout the 1950s and 1960s  was tailored to the individual. Then, in 1963, the Army determined it would be more beneficial for units to participate in cold weather training and redesignated the U.S. Army Northern Warfare Training Center.7 In 2016, Senator Sullivan of Alaska discussed with CMC Gen Neller the future possibilities for Marines to train in Alaska. A Marine himself, Senator Sullivan provided opportunities for Gen Neller to speak to the local Alaskan population and evaluate various locations for future training opportunities.8

Better Training for Norway
Recent experiences from Marines on the rotational force to Trondheim, Norway, have reported that the training work-up for operating in Norway was lacking enough opportunities to fully prepare Marines for the cold weather. A Marine staff non-commissioned officer reported to Military.com that his unit did not have the opportunity to train at the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Facility before deploying to Norway. The Marine’s unit was the first unit to participate in the Norway deployment rotation.9

Dr. Njord Wegge with the Norwegian Defence University College discussed critical security concerns for Norway in 2021 at the Arctic Symposium hosted by the Marine Corps University. The mission statement for the Arctic initiative at the Marine Corps University states, “The Arctic is a region undergoing major changes, and those changes have local, regional, and global impacts. The Arctic has long been a theater of strategic competition. At the same time, the region is marked by decades of cooperation.”10 The mission statement of the Arctic Strategic Initiative states,

The MCU Arctic Strategic Initiative (ASI) was established to create a network of relevant scholars and institutions and facilitate student research in order to generate increased understanding of the nature and challenges of Arctic security for students and faculty at MCU, and to support the Marine Corps and its role in U.S national security.11

Dr. Wegge listed security concerns for Norway such as Norway’s geographic location to Russia, NATO expansion including Sweden and Finland joining NATO doubling the distance of the NATO border to Russia, the use of F-35 aircraft by Norway, and P-8 integration with submarines around Norway. Challenges of operating in cold weather include but are not limited to, soldiers, sailors, and Marines knowing different methods of staying warm to survive, maintaining batteries and electronics in cold weather, cold weather logistics and resupply, and surviving beyond the grid in cold weather to name a few. Norway serves as the Western flank of Russia and Alaska serves as the Eastern flank.

How do Marines train to be the connecting force for U.S. Army forces coming ashore in the event of a Russian invasion of Norway? The answer is training in Alaska. Marine forces in Norway are just as much a stand-in force as the Marine littoral regiment is in the Pacific. On page one of the Tentative Manual for Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations, the CMC tasked the force, “Between now and 2023, we will need to test and refine the ideas in this volume to give new formations sufficient guidelines for applying their new capabilities effectively to accomplish their missions.”12 The Tentative Manual for Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations is intended to be “a foundation for expansion into formal naval doctrine.”13 The development of naval doctrine takes time but units are experimenting across the Marine Corps and one such unit is doing so in Alaska.

What Happened in Alaska?
Recently, an MV-22B squadron conducted a training detachment at Bryant Army Airfield in Anchorage, AK. Alaska was a test of the unit’s ability to operate in extreme cold weather and conduct expeditionary advanced base operations. This exercise was in preparation for conducting proof of concept training for expeditionary advanced base operations planned later in the year for Key West, FL, and the Bahamas.

The unit planned the movement from Marine Corps Air Station Miramar through the West Coast of the CONUS, Canada, and terminated in Anchorage at Bryant Army Airfield. The unit executed through the United States and Canada with little issue but as the unit approached Prince William Sound, AK, and crested over several remaining ridge lines before descending below a cloud level to maintain visual meteorological conditions the unit and flight found itself in a weather phenomenon not found in many areas of the world except the Arctic. The temperatures were below freezing, and the flight was avoiding instrument meteorological conditions to prevent ice from building up on the aircraft. South of Boulder Bay, AK, the micro-climate began to change rapidly. A wall of frozen clouds began to close around the flight of aircraft. The division found itself enclosed in clouds with 13,000 feet of freezing clouds above it. Extreme micro-climates, such as the climate the squadron was flying into, are a phenomenon found only in a few areas in the world. The pilots in the flight were unfamiliar with operating in this type of climate. The exposure to the micro-climate and the actions taken as a result spurred discussions about how to plan for such environmental conditions. Micro-climates found in Alaska provide for greater training and improved tactical proficiency in any clime and place.

The flight safely landed at an unplanned austere runway as the visibility rapidly reduced to less than one-half mile. Landing on the unimproved runway, the flight crews began discussing whether the local villagers would welcome the Marines. The aircraft shut down and the crews started gathering the equipment to secure the aircraft. Stepping out of the aircraft, a local village member met the crew. After a few minutes of talking, one of the senior pilots rode on the back of a quad all-terrain vehicle to the local school building. The local village member unlocked the building and helped with turning the boiler on for hot water. After touring the building, the pilot was back on the all-terrain vehicle heading back towards all the aircraft that had landed on a small dirt strip and parked on the unimproved aircraft ramp. The island had limited cell phone reception and only one service was providing cell phone reception in the area. Those who had cell phone coverage were able to make calls to notify different agencies that we had made an unscheduled landing on a small island south of Anchorage. The size of the footprint was about a platoon’s worth of Marines. The Marines did not have much food on the aircraft and collaborated with the local villagers to help feed the Marines while using the school building. The weather continued to be less than the minimum needed to launch for the next several days. The local village was extremely supportive, brought food, and allowed the Marines to continue staying in the school gym while waiting for the weather to clear.

The division of aircraft was low on fuel. Planning for the follow-on flight included finding the closest location to receive fuel that would support the division of aircraft. The closest fuel location did not have enough fuel in the fuel trucks to support the fuel required for all three aircraft. Pilots on the flight knew several Air Force pilots at the local KC-130 aerial refueling squadron and called to see if they would be able to aerial refuel the flight after launching from the intermediate fuel location to meet the minimum fuel requirements to recover to Bryant Army Airfield. The Air Force launched to support. After taking the remaining fuel at the closest refueling location, the flight departed to rendezvous with the Air Force refueling tanker. Following receiving fuel, the flight continued to Anchorage.

The MV-22 aircraft in the division did not have functioning anti-icing capabilities, which is common in the MV-22 community. H-1 helicopter platforms cannot fly in icing conditions. Similarly, the CH-53 has limited anti-icing capabilities and cannot fly in icing conditions. All constraints that pose challenges when operating in cold environments. Contingency planning becomes crucial and vertical lift becomes a requirement when needing to land as weather changes rapidly. Consistently operating in an environment that requires systems that combat cold weather further incentivizes investment in cold weather capabilities not only for aircraft but for all systems and weapons. It would be easy to focus only on aircraft anti-ice capabilities, but operating in this environment presents multiple challenges to overcome tactically and operationally.

The Northern Edge
To optimize training, the Marine Corps would need to find new locations for restricted live-fire training. “The Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex (JPARC) is comprised of approximately 65,000 square miles of available airspace, 2,490 square miles of land space with 1.5 million acres of maneuver land, and 42,000 square nautical miles of surface, subsurface, and overlying airspace in the Gulf of Alaska.”14 The JPARC supports joint large-scale exercises such as NORTHERN EDGE. One of the standout evolutions of NORTHERN EDGE is the number of high-end experiments and demonstrations conducted. This in conjunction with virtual training could expand the scope of current Marine Corps training capabilities.

The two after-action reports for NORTHERN EDGE 2021 on the Marine Corps Center for Lessons Learned SharePoint came from Marine Air Control Group 38 and Marine Aerial Refueler Squadron (VMGR) 152. VMGR-152 discussed the requirements for coordination ahead of NORTHERN EDGE 2021, requirements that would not be as necessary with a permanent Marine Corps training facility. “The detachment did not reach out to Marine Forces Pacific (MARFORPAC) about planning for NORTHERN EDGE until six months prior to the exercise.”

At this point, the initial planning conference had been conducted and the MARFORPAC lead planner decided to bed down the KC-130s in Cold Bay, AK. Concerns over the lack of maintenance support at Cold Bay were brought up to the MARFORPAC planner and a request to move the detachment to either Eielson or JBER (Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson) was made in December 2020. The detachment did not get confirmation that their bed down would be at Eielson AFB until March 2021. It was discovered that none of the logistics support requests submitted to MARFORPAC over the preceding three months had been forwarded to the Air Force. This caused the detachment planner and officer in charge (OIC) to conduct all the logistics maintenance support requests within 60 days of arrival to Eielson AFB. VMGR-152 highlighted that, “the JPARC range complex is heavily used for training (by the Air Force and Army) and requires significant lead time to ensure that desired range space, emitters, and (smoky surface to air simulators) are scheduled and secured.”15 Marine Air Control Group-38 covered an extensive list of planning constraints and execution milestones in their after-action report.16A permanent presence of Marines in Alaska would provide improved planning, better coordination, and improved proficiency with cold weather logistics, communications, operational planning, and tactical execution for units.

The Marine Corps needs more repetitions in Alaska and the Arctic, and planning evolutions continue to experience friction due to shortfalls in knowledge of planning requirements for cold-weather environments. Is it time for the Navy and Marine Corps to invest in Alaska to fill this strategic gap?

Notes

1. Headquarters Marine Corps, Training and Education 2030, (Washington, DC: 2023).

2. Ibid.

3. Hope Hodge Seck, “Marines May Go to Alaska for Cold Weather Training,” Military.com, February 18, 2023, https://www.military.com/daily-news/2018/02/18/marines-may-go-alaska-cold-weather-training.html.

4. United States Army, “Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex Reference Card,” JPARC, n.d., https://www.jber.jb.mil/Portals/144/units/JPARC/PDF/JPARC-Fact-Sheet.pdf.

5. Daniel E. Mangrum, “The Marine Corps Needs a Better Mountain Warfare Training Center,” Proceedings, March 2019, https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2019/march/marine-corps-needs-better-mountain-warfare-training-center.

6. Ibid.

7. United States Army, “Northern Warfare Training Center,” Army.mil, November 13, 2018, https://www.army.mil/article/170432/northern_warfare_training_center.

8. Zachary Hughes, “Could the Marine Corps be Coming to Alaska?,” Alaska Public Media, July 25, 2016, https://www.ktoo.org/2016/07/25/marine-corps-coming-alaska.

9. “Marines May Go to Alaska for Cold

Weather Training.”

10. Marine Corps University, “Arctic Strategic

Initiative,” Marines.mil, n.d., https://www.usmcu.edu/Research/Arctic-Strategic-Initative.

11. Ibid.

12. Headquarters Marine Corps, Tentative Manual for Expeditionary Advance Base Operations, (Washington, DC: 2019).

13. Ibid.

14. “Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex Reference Card.”

15. Marine Corps Center for Lessons Learned, Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 152 After Action Report for Northern Edge 2021, (Quantico: 2021).

16. Marine Corps Center for Lessons Learned, Marine Air Control Group 38 After Action Report for Northern Edge 2021, (Quantico: 2021)

Improving quality of life through management, modernization, and material

>MajGen Maxwell is the CG of Marine Corps Installations Command.

>>Maj Boivin is the Legislative Aide for Deputy Commandant, Installations and Logistics.  At the time of submission, he was serving in the same role for CG, Marine Corps Installations Command.

LCpl Puller is excited. After graduating from Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island as platoon guide and earning a meritorious promotion, he graduated at the top of his class at Marine Combat Training aboard Camp Geiger, NC. Now that he is on his way to Camp Lejeune from Fort Leonard Wood, a smile comes over his face—he is going to the fleet! Finally, no more squad bays, foot lockers, and listening to 30 other Marines snoring at night.

He looks forward to meeting his new roommate and settling into his role as a motor transport operator at 1/2 Mar. He arrives on base just before 1900; the battalion is secured for the day, but the duty NCO is prepared for new check-ins and directs LCpl Puller to a transient room until the barracks manager can provide him his permanent residence in the morning. After waking up and getting himself put together, LCpl Puller’s squad leader takes him through the time-honored tradition of the check-in sheet. After completing the bulk of his sheet, he finally meets the barracks manager, Cpl Krulak.

While an excellent infantryman, Cpl Krulak is still trying to figure out his new role as the unit’s barracks manager, a position he assumed two weeks ago. Unfortunately, he is still waiting on access to the barracks database because his email account was not set up, but he reviews his spreadsheet and sees an unoccupied rack in Room 201. After assuming that the room is in good order, he scans a key card and hands it to LCpl Puller. After exiting the office, Puller grabs his sea bags and starts walking down the catwalk to his room. He pauses in front of 201, takes a deep breath, and opens the door to his new home.

Here. Right here is a critical juncture in the relationship between a Marine and the Marine Corps. This is where the institution shows how it values the fundamental and physiological needs of Marines like LCpl Puller and invests in retaining them for the long term. The Commandant of the Marine Corps said as much in his August 2023 Guidance to the Force: “To recruit and retain the best we will focus on improving our barracks, base housing, gyms, chow halls, child development centers, and personnel policies.  I view QoL improvements as direct contributors to a more capable and lethal force.  Marines can always do more with less, but it is my job to make sure you do not have to do so with your living conditions or those of your families.”1

The Marine Corps prioritized FMF readiness and modernization over its installation infrastructure, including barracks, which has contributed to unacceptable barracks conditions.

The Marine Corps will improve its readiness by improving the conditions of barracks and demonstrating our commitment to Marines. As the Service that lauds itself as the most ready, it must set the conditions necessary to prepare Marines mentally and physically. A foundational element of this readiness is the physiological need to provide a space for warfighters to rest and recharge, which begins at the barracks. As leaders, we are obligated to provide Marines with safe, clean, and comfortable housing. Marines and our Nation that sends them to us should expect nothing less.

To accomplish this, the Marine Corps is implementing a multi-pronged approach to improve its barracks characterized as Barracks 2030.

Barracks Management
Today, when LCpl Puller is checking into his new unit, he will report to the barracks manager. This position is typically held by an NCO, a position Marines are not formally trained for and hold for one year. Cpl Krulak did not ask for the barracks manager billet, nor was he trained at the School of Infantry to execute his newly assigned role. Unfortunately, this often leads to inconsistent management and poor service to residents.. Due to the needs of commands and the lack of alternatives, units identify NCOs to perform the duties of a property manager with limited, to no, training and routinely hold for less than one year.

To improve the management of its barracks, the Marine Corps will hire civilian personnel to provide oversight and management of its barracks portfolio that mirrors private sector property management industry standards. Beginning in the Summer of 2024, the Marine Corps will begin hiring civilian personnel into these new positions to alleviate the pressures on operational units.  Professionalizing the management workforce with civilians can improve the oversight of room conditions and address systemic backlog issues such as tracking inventory and maintenance. A part of this change was upgrading the work request management systems. At Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, the Marine Housing Office experimented with a barracks maintenance app, which allows Marines to scan a QR code and submit a work request for maintenance issues. This trial period informed improvements in the app before a broader fielding to the other installations.

This new management process will not absolve senior leaders from their role in the oversight of their barracks. Professionalizing the management of barracks with civilians will provide the continuity and requisite knowledge needed to ensure barracks standards are improved over time. This allows improved awareness of barracks quality for commanders and where to focus efforts for structural and quality of life improvements.

In addition to assisting commanders in the day-to-day barracks management responsibilities, the Marine Corps will implement a new resident advisor program. This voluntary program will allow one or two SNCOs to reside in a barracks with “resident advisor” like duties similar to colleges and universities. Ultimately, each barracks will have two SNCOs that live in the building and provide mentorship like a resident advisor program in a college dormitory. This also assists SNCOs who are living geographically separated from their families to receive quarters while assisting commands in good order and discipline at the barracks. The program can enhance living standards, ensure resident safety, and increase the leadership presence during off-duty hours. Today, the initial tranche of resident advisors are living in barracks aboard Marine Corps Air Station Miramar with the respective commands lauding the new program and the additional oversight and mentorship it provides Marines living in the barracks.

Currently, entire barracks buildings are assigned to commands, regardless of whether they can fill all rooms. Conversely, centralized billeting, which is employed by other Services, will assign rooms with no regard for a Marines’ unit. This means that LCpl Puller could be placed on the opposite end of the base from where he works with Marines from several different commands. To balance these two approaches, the Marine Corps will move to centralized unit allocation management, which assists in helping units maintain unit integrity while maximizing the available barracks rooms on base. Changing how the Marine Corps assigns rooms by rank will also assist in using more buildings.

The room configurations differ across all bases and installations. Depending on duty location and rank, a Marine can expect to have one or two roommates while potentially sharing a head with another room. As the Marine Corps matures its force, it must provide billeting commensurate with a Marine’s rank and responsibility. Current configurations of barracks will remain, with future designs moving toward NCOs having their own private space with a shared bathroom and common area.

There are over 150,000 bed spaces available in the 658 barracks the Marine Corps maintains.  Of these, about 88,000 are currently filled.  It is unproductive to pay for rooms not in use. A vehicle not driven in a year will have components breakdown due to non-use. Similarly, rooms that do not receive regular cleanings and upkeep will fall into disrepair. By assigning NCOs their own rooms, the Marine Corps can increase occupancy while acknowledging seniority within its ranks. Ultimately, this can improve the morale and quality of life for Marines to rest, reset, and recharge. All these initiatives will substantially transform how we manage our barracks.  But in order to ensure the long term health of our infrastructure we must invest in the buildings as well.

Barracks Modernization
Through the end of the 18th century, troops were customarily housed in private houses, inns, and other existing facilities, despite being a grievance listed in the U.S. Declaration of Independence (and banned by the Third Amendment). It was also considered bad for the soldiers’ morale to continuously relocate, and consequently, a movement began for constructing permanent barracks wherever troops were regularly stationed. In the 19th century such buildings, mostly of brick, appeared all over Europe.2 In modern times, iterations of the barracks spanned various shapes and sizes, and as recently as the 1990s, Marines were still residing in squad bays.

In the early 2000s, the Marine Corps increased the size of its force by tens of thousands to meet the demands of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. While the short-term impacts were positive, the long-term sustainment of the increased barracks inventory became insurmountable. The Marine Corps currently operates 658 barracks buildings worldwide with 112 (17 percent) of these buildings in poor or failing condition.

To mitigate these impacts, the Marine Corps will review its inventory and right-size the number of barracks it owns and operates to ensure adequate space for the current force and an adequate sustainment inventory. This will improve our financial position and allow us to maintain the remaining barracks at a higher standard. There are numerous financial levers the Marine Corps can pull to right-size the number of barracks; these funding levers include new construction, demolition, renovation, and modernization. The Marine Corps cannot build its way out of this problem; it must focus its efforts on demolition, restoration, and modernization, which it will begin in 2024 and aim to be complete by 2031.

Maintenance processes will also need to change with a smaller inventory. The Marine Corps will mirror private hotel industry practices during its barracks renovations. While private hotel companies will renovate sections or rooms as they become available, the Marine Corps waits until a certain period (e.g., 25 years) before shutting down the entire barracks, relocating Marines, and then completely renovating the building. The Marine Corps’ methodology in updating its facilities inconveniences Marines, particularly when they must move multiple times during the same enlistment because of poor construction practices. During these renovations, the Marine Corps needs to account for the readiness impacts on the current generation of Marines.

Similarly, maintenance contact teams will be contracted to work for the installation housing offices. These contact teams will be available to respond to emergent maintenance requirements, much like private hotel companies have maintenance workers who can provide immediate assistance to maintenance requests by hotel guests. This is currently being successfully modeled at MCAS Miramar.

Another area where the Marine Corps will address unsatisfactory barracks conditions is specifically at Camp Pendleton, CA. Hearing the complaints from Marines living in barracks about the lack of air conditioning, particularly at Camp Horno (which literally means Oven in Spanish), the Marine Corps is developing a comprehensive plan to install new air conditioning units in the area. While this is expensive and difficult due to the original design of the buildings, it is a necessary improvement following the increasing heat waves occurring in Southern California. Notably, the Marine Corps reallocated funds to begin the renovations in the summer of 2023.

Fixing Fixtures, Furniture and Amenities
Our current accommodations, including furniture and amenities, are inadequate to recruit and retain the best talent. Rooms do not need to to mirror the $3,000 apartment out in town but are more closely aligned with dormitories of colleges and universities. When LCpl Puller makes it back to his barracks room after a long day at the motor pool, he needs a space to reset and recharge and an area to foster comradery with friends.

Some of these expectations are assured in the Marine Corps’ Unaccompanied Housing Guarantees and Resident Responsibilities, which requires Marines receive safe, secure housing that meets health, environmental, and safety standards; has functional fixtures, furnishings, appliances, and utilities; have access to common areas and amenities; and fast maintenance and repair when something breaks. Published in June 2023, this document establishes the standard every Marine can expect from their command for their rooms. New oversight from civilian managers will assist in this oversight and enforce standards during check-in and check-out procedures. Until this structure is established, it is critical that leadership advocate on behalf of their Marines to ensure barracks receive the attention necessary to resolve room issues quickly, including room fixtures.

Fixtures and furniture in Marines’ barracks are old, worn down, or broken. Currently, the Marine Corps’ 32-year lifecycle timeline has been insufficient to provide Marines with quality and reliable furniture and fixtures and impacts only 2,600 (or 3 percent) of Marines living in the barracks seeing new furniture each year. Updating the refresh cycle to a 10-year investment will outfit the barracks with more current fixtures and furniture and impact 8,700 (or 10 percent) Marines annually. The furniture ordering process will also be overhauled, centralizing the funding and standardizing furniture packages—to include washers and dryers—for different barracks types to leverage more buying power.

Ultimately, the Marine Corps must understand what its current force looks for in a barracks room. This may include kitchenettes, improved connectivity for gaming, or better recreation rooms to gather with friends. Thoughtful investments in amenities and recreation rooms can mirror amenities provided by private apartments out in town but should reflect what the current generation of Marines want. A well-intentioned billiards room will become a wasted space if the real desire is a recreational room with multiple gaming stations.

Barracks for the 21st Century
What was LCpl Puller’s reaction after he opened his door? Was it disappointment about the condition of the room or pride in a clean and well-furnished home as a Marine joining his unit? His response hinges on the actions the Marine Corps does or does not take to improve its buildings. The glaring shortfalls in the current barracks inventory are evident and changes must be made. The undercurrent of these changes is mindfulness for Marines’ mental health, well-being, and readiness.

During a period of budget uncertainty, these solutions will be done at a tempo that allows for the prudent use of taxpayer dollars. Although immediate solutions are preferable, a recent Government Accountability Office report published in September 2023 “found that oversight and funding has been lacking for years” [and] “It will take years to address the chronic neglect and underfunding.”3 The Marine Corps cannot overcompensate with significant sums of money that cannot be spent smartly and risk investing in the wrong initiatives because it must spend money now.

The Marine Corps already shows a willingness to reallocate fiscal resources to tackle immediate challenges like barracks air conditioning in Camp Pendleton or updating 75-year-old barracks in Quantico. During his confirmation hearing, then Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen Eric Smith told Congress: “Taking care of Marines is a warfighting function. Otherwise, they cannot focus on the mission at hand. Barracks, chow halls and gyms are a key to retaining Marines, and investments in quality-of-life initiatives are truly warfighting needs.”

By improving the barracks through professionalizing management, modernizing infrastructure, and providing better amenities, the Marine Corps will provide its warfighters with a home appropriate to the professionalism and readiness we demand.

The individual Marine is the foundation of the Marine Corps being the most ready when the Nation is least ready. The Marine Corps must provide the necessary conditions to be ready—a ready home creates a ready Marine, which enables a ready force.

Notes

1. Gen Eric Smith, A CMC Guidance to the Force, (Washington, DC: 2023).

2. Britannica, c.v., “barracks,” https://www.britannica.com/topic/barracks.

3. Karen Jowers, “‘Move Decisively’ to Fix Troops’ Barracks, Lawmakers Tell Austin,” Military Times, September 29, 2023, https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2023/09/29/move-decisively-to-fix-troops-barracks-lawmakers-tell-austin.

A credible deterrent

>Maj Schedler is a 7202 Air Command and Control Officer currently serving as the Ground Based Air Defense Division Head at Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron 1. Prior to promotion to Major, he was a Low Altitude Air Defense Officer and has been stationed at both 2d and 3d Low Altitude Air Defense Battalions.

>>MSgt Stepp is a 7212 Low Altitude Air Defense Gunner currently serving as the Ground Based Air Defense Battery Operations Chief at 3d Littoral Anti-Air Battalion. Prior to promotion, he was stationed at Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron 1 and 3d Low Altitude Air Defense Battalion.

In 2018, under the guidance of the National Military Strategy (NMS), three fundamental approaches were outlined regarding the future of the United States armed forces. These three policies were force employment, force development, and Force Design.1 The NMS along with the National Defense Strategy have led to many changes in the way we fight as a Joint Force. With the end of the war in Afghanistan and the reduced presence in Iraq, the Marine Corps is looking to reshape and restructure itself with the shift to the Pacific and the inherent maritime nature of conflict in the region. The Marine Littoral Regiment’s (MLR) design is part of this change. Some may argue that MLR is not a traditional MAGTF or even a MAGTF because the centerpiece is not the infantry and the lack of aircraft. Our current standard of warfighting and doctrine needs to adapt to support the NMS and this new formation.
Force Design is changing more than just structure, it is changing the way the Marine Corps thinks and fights. A notable example of this new model is that the infantry formations that form the core of the Littoral Combat Team (LCT) are not predestined to be the sole main effort of the MLR. Depending on the phase of the competition continuum and with the evolution of precision-guided munitions, other elements may be better suited to be the main effort. The MLR is a supporting effort to the naval force, not the MEF. Instead, it provides several critical capabilities to the naval force due to its unique design.2 The elements such as the forward arming and refueling point (FARP) battery, the air control battery (ACB), and the medium-range missile (MMSL) battery all have the ability to be the main effort of the MLR due to their ability to directly support the warfare commanders within the Navy Composite Warfare Commander construct. The infantry, like the Ground Based Air Defense Battery, will be in support of those elements by providing force protection. These force protection elements will maneuver to new terrain features and secure them to allow critical capabilities the ability to enable the Joint Force without prohibitive interference.

Since introductory training, all Marines have been indoctrinated into their reason for existence—to support the Marine infantryman as “the tip of the spear.” To corroborate this mentality, Marine Aviation lives by Maj Cunningham’s, the Corps’ first aviator, quote: “only excuse for aviation in any service, is its usefulness in assisting the troops on the ground.” Leaders continually remind disenchanted Marines that they, in their own small way, are supporting the lance corporal infantryman. The Corps’ culture was developed from a focus on a landbased enemy: either in the deserts of Iraq or on the beaches of Guadalcanal. However, the purpose of the MLR, much like the Marine Defense Battalions, is to counter a threat from the sea or air. The MLR is designed to exist within the maritime domain, contributing to sea control and performing sea denial from key maritime terrain within their assigned area of responsibility as part of a Stand-In Force across the competition continuum.3 Thus, it needs to be postured to support naval integration and freedom of navigation within critical sea lines of communication.4 As the primary ground formation within the Stand-In Force, the MLR seeks to establish itself during the competition phase without escalation. While this is not a new concept to the Marine Corps, it has become unfamiliar after twenty years of fighting a non-conventional force.

We require a fundamental shift in the way we perceive warfare as Marines. The MLR should not be thought of as just a traditional infantry-centric organization, the most capable weapon that can support the Joint Force in the LCT is a naval strike missile (NSM), a weapon originating from artillery. The MLR is designed to support the Joint Force’s collective kill chains and keep pace with the threat of our adversaries.5 Evolving technology refined the targeting cycle and has eliminated the requirement for a human observer with unmanned aerial systems and satellites taking this critical role in the targeting cycle. Precision-guided munitions such as cruise and ballistic missiles, with ranges of hundreds of miles, have eliminated the need for the enemy to put a pilot at close range to the target to ensure effective fires.6 These new threat capabilities may not require an adversary to control terrain or sea lines of communication to accomplish national objectives; instead, the act of denial of battle, economic, and transportation space to friendly forces allows an adversary to complete strategic objectives.7 The U.S. national policies outlining our commitment to our allies in the region require our military to adapt to support deterrence within regions of strategic importance.8

The MLR’s main effort needs to be the elements that can support the Joint Force and integration within the Navy Composite Warfare Commander. The MLR’s key fires asset, the NSM, will deter threats, and when needed, defeat enemy naval surface combatants providing an area denial capability to the Maritime Component Commander. The ACB provides sensor data building the situational awareness of naval aviation assets patrolling key maritime terrain and enabling kill chains when needed. The FARP battery extends the range of joint aviation assets, enabling friendly naval vessels to be stationed in safer waters while supporting the Maritime or Air Component Commander. The combination of these tasks makes the MLR a critical enabler to the Joint Force’s anti-access/area denial system that can counter an adversary increasing aggression within regions of strategic importance to the United States.9

The Marine Corps infantrymen cannot be the MLR’s main effort in these types of operations because their weapons do not have the capability to operate outside of a force protection capacity against irregular or gray-zone forces. Furthermore, the Marine Corps is not the main effort. In an effort to support the NMS, the U.S. military has adopted an adaptive and innovative Joint-Force capability that will enable seamless operations across multiple regions and all domains. This concept is called Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations.10 This allows Stand-In Forces to persist inside the enemy weapons engagement zone while supporting the warfare commanders within the Navy’s Composite Warfare Commander, and their ability to affect targets within their respective areas of responsibility.

In the levels below armed conflict, the purpose of the MLR is to establish expeditionary advanced bases that support or enable Joint Force operations. As crisis transitions to armed conflict, the mission of the MLR is to deny the adversary’s use of key maritime terrain buying time for the Joint Force, specifically the Air Force and the Navy, to arrive and assume operational control. In both levels, the infantry provides force protection in defense of vital areas, conducts actions such as maritime search and interdiction in support of host nation forces, and reconnaissance/counter reconnaissance operations.11 The infantry also has the capability to conduct small-scale offensive operations to clear small pockets of enemy ground forces and raids against bases to enable the rest of the MLR to operate without prohibitive interference at the lowest tactical level. The remaining MLR elements will conduct supporting actions in direct support of the Joint Force, which is beyond the capabilities of the infantry battalion alone. This reinforces the need for a shift in our historical warfare mentality of supporting the 0311 as the main effort. The MLR provides the Joint Force critical enabling capabilities. The infantry, and their force protection capabilities at the lowest tactical level, are not considered one of these critical capabilities. Thus, the FARP battery, ACB, and the medium-range missile battery should be the MLR’s main effort as key enablers in accomplishing its mission as a supporting effort to the greater joint or combined force.

As the conflict matures, the MLR still does not have the ability to shift the main effort to the infantry. Just like the MEU, the infantry element within the MLR consists of a battalion reinforced. It is important to note that the MLR does not have the aviation assets to support the infantry like the MEU. The LAAB, the closest thing to an ACE of the MLR, consists of command, control, and communications enablers that help sense and make sense of the environment.12 They also extend the range of aviation assets not organic nor in support of the MLR but in support of the Navy or combined forces. The MLR is a critical enabler for the Joint Force, not the main effort, it is unlikely that the Joint Force’s limited assets in theater will be put into harm’s way to support the MLR. The MLR was designed to excel in the enemy’s weapons engagement zone, not to be defended within it.13

A counterargument to the concept of the infantry not being the main effort of the MLR is the Marine Corps’ Title X requirement to seize and defend advanced naval bases. This article has identified a few key elements within the MLR, the ACB, the medium-range missile battery, and the FARP battery that will serve as the MLR’s enablers to the Joint Force. Since the MLR is designed to establish, utilize, and then displace from vital areas such as airports, seaports, and logistical lines of communication, the challenge comes from the fact that the infantry is the only element that can seize key terrain. The rest of the MLR elements can either directly or indirectly support by denying the adversary use of key terrain. This again highlights the need for a shift in doctrine to move away from the mentality that the infantry is the main effort during offensive operations. The Marine Corps is an offensive organization. Thus, LCT could argue that they should serve as the main effort of the MLR. If this is not held as a guiding priority, then MLR will not be postured to take the fight to the enemy.

This logic is flawed. Offensively seizing terrain does not happen when the MLR is designed and planned to be inserted during the level below armed conflict.14 The MLR is not intended for forcible entry operations. Title X is also a Marine Corps requirement, not an MLR requirement. Instead, the ground that the expeditionary advanced bases would be located on would be provided by and at the invite of a friend and ally. Instead, the main effort in lodgment operations may be the comptroller or person in control of cash that could pay for use of a basing site if the State Department has not already arranged host-nation support. In defensive operations where the primary mission is the protection of a seaport that enables the flow of friendly forces, the infantry will still not be the main effort for the MLR because of precision-guided munitions fired from hundreds of miles away.15 With this change in the enemy weapon systems, the main effort may be the ACB cueing air defense assets in general support of the Composite Warfare Commander’s Air and Missile Defense Commander.16 These actions are what the MLR exists to do instead of traditional infantry-based operations.

The MLR exists to persist and thrive within the weapons engagement zone of our enemy to support and extend the joint or combined force’s warfighting capabilities which enable the use of strategic sea and airspace. The infantry element in the MLR’s LCT has limited ability to degrade enemy kill webs to support the Joint Force similar to the adjacent LAAB. However, this change to Marine Corps culture is not a total transformation. The MEF’s main effort remains the Marine division as the primary warfighting element of the Marine Corps. The conversion is within the MLR, where the infantry exists to secure the next micro-terrain and provide force protection to support extensions of Marine Aviation, command and control, and surface fires, required to support the joint or combined force. As with force design, the culture of the Marine Corps in the MLR needs to adapt to meet the next war ready to fight and win.

Notes1. The Joint Staff, Description of the National Military Strategy, (Washington, DC: 2018).

2. Headquarters Marine Corps, Force Design 2030, (Washington, DC: 2020); Headquarters Marine Corps, Marine Littoral Regiment (MLR), (Washington, DC: August 2021).

3. Marine Littoral Regiment.

4. Headquarters Marine Corps, Tentative Manual for EABO, (Washington, DC: 2021).

5. Ibid.

6. Christian Brose, Kill chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare (New York: Hachette Books, 2020).

7. United States Department of the Navy Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower, (Washington, DC: 2015) and Tentative Manual for EABO.

8. The Joint Staff, Description of the National Military Strategy, (Washington, DC: 2018).

9. Tentative Manual for EABO.

10. Ibid.

11. Ibid.

12. Marine Littoral Regiment.

13. Force Design 2030.

14. Tentative Manual for EABO.

15. Kill Chain.

16. Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower, Force Design 2030; and Tentative Manual for EABO.