You ever see one of those ideas that you thought had been thoroughly throat stomped, dragged to the river and held under till it was dead, tossed in to feed the catfish/crawfish...only to somehow rise up out of the swamp and come back to haunt you like some weird Walking Dead episode?
If you haven't then let me introduce you to the Enhanced Company Landing Team Concept.
I'm in the process of going through old files to gather the T/O of how the Marine Corps proposes to man/equip this beast but to give you a basic primer I recommend you check out this article by Col Goulding.
What should chill everyone's bones is that the Marine Corps is actually thinking of using CLT's to seize airfields, naval bases, establish forward operating bases and conduct raids (these were mission sets, especially airfield and naval base seizure, that many believed required a MEB).
Independent combat operations for CLT's to last anywhere from 3 to 7 days.
The Special Ops Cabal inside the Marine Corps insists on pushing this concept despite the danger. What we're seeing is General Purpose Forces being pulled toward counter insurgency operations at the expense of being able to conduct conventional warfare. I believe that is a mistake.
More to come.
I see this as the USMC trying to take over the Ranger mission of being the bitch boys of SOCOM. Half the Rangers I know spent most of their combat time doing outer cordon security for SEAL teams who were doing night raids.
ReplyDeleteThe Platoons are organized about the same doctrinally as a Ranger platoon. The Company Mortar section has one more tube than a Ranger Company. There is no HQ Machine Gun or Scout sections in a Ranger Company so that is a lot of added firepower that this has for the Marines. For the Record Stryker Companies have Company Snipers, Company Mortars (4 tubes, 2x 60mm and 2x 120mm) plus the MGS Platoon which can serve as "armored recon" for the rest of the Company. So it looks like a beefed up Light Infantry Company that took some lessons from the Stryker MTOE.
We expect Ranger Companies to be able to seize airfields, in Panama two Companies were tasked with seizing Rio Hato Airfield. The big difference is that these Marine Companies will not be parachuting in en mass, which means fast roping is the quickest option to get boots on the ground. I don't know if Marines fast rope as a normal part of business, but when you have to land aircraft to offload troops, the danger goes way up.
For anything commercial airfield or larger, one of these companies just won't be enough. For something like a small regional airport, one company would be adequate. Now I don't know for sure what the planners are thinking with this TOE, but it looks like the USMC answer to the Rangers.
i think you're spot on. this Special Ops Mafia inside the Marine Corps has been pushing the Commando role for quite awhile and honestly i thought they would be satisfied with MARSOC being born. i was wrong. additionally, and i can't explain why, the many in the Marine Corps look at the Rangers as encroaching on Marine Corps mission sets. all i see is duplication of effort and thats never a good thing.
Deletei wasn't aware that Strykers went that heavy with mortars. definitely need to take a look at them again.
as far as fast roping, yeah its daily business. they teach it from week 1 in boot camp (i count the obstacle course and how its taught as baby fast rope training). but even with that being said fast roping out of a MV-22 (which i've never done) doesn't strike me as something thats as easily done as it is out of a CH-53 or CH-47 (i think the MV-22 only lets you go off the ramp, with the CH-53 you can go off the ramp and the hell hole.
i'll have to look up the history but even the Ranger attack on Rio Hato had them being relieved in hours not days.
but having said all that, have you noticed whats missing with this concept? enhanced medical. if you're expecting this unit to go out and fight solo and hold ground for even a day or two you're going to need a fully certified mini-medical section to deal with the injured and wounded.
more to come but at this point i am far from convinced on this.
What about an air defense section?
DeleteWhat happens if air superiority is not regularly achievable?
This is a question that frightens me. We really need a more robust air defense capability, ive always felt the meu was under powered, to deal with a opponent with a somewhat decent air capability.
Deletethe powers that be don't give a rats ass about the possibility of the USMC facing a peer or near peer. all they see is the 100 years war against terror, becoming SOCOM's bitch boys and justifying the enormous expense of the MV-22.
Deletethe very idea that we can be looking at situations where Marine units will be cut off, destroyed and the survivors dragged through the streets of some third world city is not worth a moments consideration by those that are pushing this concept.
additionally explain to me why and how you're going to divvy up the resources and provide support to a dispersed ARG to support these mythical ECO's?!
this is a half baked concept to support a flawed idea.
so....where is the FAC/JTAC? god knows you need to go ahead and add 81's and 120's to the Company now if your going to put them out by themselves, at least the assault vehicles used by the 120's will give them a little more firepower from mk19's and .50's.
ReplyDeleteThis is stupid.
wow. that's a good point. i would think that with this unit operating so far that you would want an orbit of UAVs providing support along with fast jets. naval guns if available and anything else you can drag into the area.
DeleteFAC/JTAC definitely needs to be included and to be honest they probably need to be trained up to ANGLICO standards ...thats with regards to being able to call for fire from a variety of platforms, insertion methods etc..both foreign and US.
Anglico standards are no diffrent than your division JTAC whos attached to your infantry bn.
DeleteIts all comes down to how hes been trained, and alot if it is dependent On the person themselves.
Look again at the Scout Teams, see the "JFO" under the Scout Team Leaders. That stands for "Joint Fires Observer" which is a Joint certification training forward observers to call for fires from all sorts of platforms. The JTACs I've worked with do NOT go below the Brigade level any more, and work in the TOC ensuring JFO's get the support they need. Expect more Marine Infantrymen to go spend some time at Fort Sill studying their brains out to earn that particular identifyer.
ReplyDeleteJFOs are still required to work with a JTAC for any sort of offensive operations and can serve as a terminal observer for a Type 3 control. Otherwise the JFO can serve as a terminal observer for an aircraft in defensive CAS but in that case the pilot is still in charge. Only a qualified JTAC is allowed to call for CAS during "normal" operations. Hope that helps but that is probably more confusing.
DeleteThe question is should a 0311 Sgt go and get his JFO certification or should the PFC 0861 come out of Fort Sill as a JFO and be expected to be full JTAC qualled by the time he is a SGT.
The bigger question is what is the smallest maneuver unit of the USMC? Doctrinally it has been the company with the Company Commander and Company Fire Support Team (FiST) required to clear and coordinate all fires to the company level. This works well if you are doing a company sized, named operation, like assaulting up Black Top in 29 Palms and calling in F/A-18s on tank hulks and running SEADs with your cannon battery and BN 81s or CO 60s. In this instance the FiST is on a hilltop and can visually observe the entire company and give the company commander a warm fuzzy they are not about to put a 500lb bomb into one of his AAVs.
Once you distribute the company out and platoons now have 2-4 Km between them and platoons are spread over 1000m that FiST no longer has visual on the entire company and you are either forced to spread fires coordination down to the platoon commanders and allow a platoon JFO or JTAC to coordinate all fires or you end up playing the dreaded 20 questions game where the platoon commander has to give the company commander a warm fuzzy he is not going to blow anyone up talking over the radio and placing units on a map.
So far our answer has been to attempt increase the company commander's situation awareness through items like BFT, better radios, and so on. This requires much greater knowledge of these electronic systems and increases our dependence on batteries for them. So now not only does that 0311 Sgt need to go through Ft Sill to learn how to be a JFO he also needs to go through 29 Palms and learn how to work his PRC-117G or PRC-152A, Samsung Tablet and software.
Pick your poison.
USMC 0802, like I said the JTACs I've worked with do not deploy down to the Company Level, I've actually never seen one below the BN level serving as the middleman between JFO's and Pilots, but mostly I've worked with JTACs at the BDE level.
ReplyDeleteWhat you would expect to see if it was an airfield seizure is an Air Force slice element of a Combat Controller team attached to the element seizing the air field. Unless you weren't going to land anything but helicopters, then you could use ATC's from any service to set up operations.
I understand that the USMC can provide its own JTACs, but I don't see any pressing tactical need to assign a JTAC to a company TOE when JFOs are already on the books. Better to keep the JTAC at BN or higher HQ to work with the JFOs on the ground.
In the USMC JTACs are assigned at Company level by TO and I have never seen them pulled up higher than that. But in Afghanistan the JTAC is almost never out with the patrol so all controlls are type 3 a non-JFO qualled squad leader acting as the terminal observer, and the JTAC watching through the rover feed from the Company Command tent. This is done with GRGs, PISSOFF and has to be cleared by the BN commander and only after the patrol has taken contact. Hardly and optimal way to fight a truly competent enemy.
ReplyDeleteI have no experience with airfield seizure so i have no idea what would be required for that.
As for the JTACs I would rather push JTAC qualled 0861s down to the platoon level and decrease the time required to release the bomb.
really depends on the unit, but normally we dont have JTAC billets outside the Bn.
DeleteAs for never going out, that depends on the situation and the unit. I went out on Raids and Interdiction missions plus a patrol at least once a week. With attacking, it doesnt always have to be after contact has been taken. If you have Hostile Act and Hostile Intent you can clear a attack.
I think this concept is focused on operations pertaining to the first island chain where many of the islands are more akin to rocks. Im pretty sure operations in those rocks and reefs are a part of the air-sea battle concept and the marines will most likely have to shoulder that burden.
ReplyDelete