With the Afghanistan mission winding down, members of MARSOC, the Corp’s elite special forces arm, are making a return to the sea.Read the whole thing here.
The command is beginning to develop recommendations on where it could be postured in the Pacific, what level of collaboration it should have with Naval Special Warfare Command and conventional Marines in theater, and what capabilities it should offer top commanders in the region, said Maj. Jeff Landis, a MARSOC spokesman.
“We will maintain that persistent, agile capability in key theaters with fully enabled [Marine special operations companies], capable of both partner nation engagement and crisis response and provide SOF support to maritime and amphibious operations,” Landis said. “Those forces will be under operational control of the theater special operations commander and ready to conduct distributed engagements with partner nations aimed toward conflict prevention, with the capability to quickly aggregate for other actions as directed.”
This month, MARSOC officials will travel to U.S. Special Operations Command headquarters in Tampa, Fla., for a war game that will shape MARSOC’s future work in amphibious operations and examine how special operators can work better with Marine air-ground task forces.
Landis said the command’s leaders routinely discuss the future of maritime operations with Rear Adm. Sean Pybus, head of NSWC, including developing special operations concepts involving new ships such as the littoral combat ship and the afloat forward staging base Ponce, designed to be a base of operations for everything from counterpiracy to mine clearing and disaster relief.
The Marine Corps is being poorly served. We have a Commandant that is airwing 110% and doesn't know, cannot possibly fathom how to defend the Corps and keep it from losing missions.
Working with Marine Corps MAGTF's? That's a camel's nose underneath the Marine Corps tent. First they work with, then they become the SUPPORTED element and then they take the mission away.
Because the Commandant comes from a part of the Marine Corps that is always a supporting element he doesn't have the knowledge to understand that he's being played.
Want further evidence of a Marine Corps without a plan? Check this out....
The first MLP, the USNS Montford Point, was christened in March. The Navy plans to build three more in coming years, incorporating an unusual design that includes a ramp that will allow larger ships to transfer vehicles to the MLP directly. The ship will frequently be used as a transfer point to deliver vehicles to shore by smaller landing craft.The Marine Corps was used to acquire a ship for which it doesn't even have a concept of operation for?
Amos, speaking April 8 at the Sea-Air-Space symposium outside Washington, D.C., said the MLP will allow the Corps to easily move tanks, 7-ton medium tactical vehicle replacement trucks and other vehicles through sea basing. He estimated the military is 10 percent of the way toward developing concepts for the ship, which is scheduled to begin operational usage in 2015.
“This will be the very first time that we’ve had the ability to really do at-sea, sea-based logistics in a combat environment,” Amos said. “We won’t need a port with this ship.”
Say it out loud. We don't have a concept of operations, yet we still whine about needing more amphibious shipping?
The Marine Corps is in a dark place. We needed Mattis and got Amos. We're screwed.
I have said this before: there are many comments about ship design and capabilities which cause me to wonder how much Marine GOs actually know about ship building. This from an email of mine:
ReplyDeleteThe only advantage that the MLP gets one in relation to amphib discharge is THREE LCAC/SSC parking spots which are limited because they are athwartship making the vehicle turning area/radius smaller.
Big ramps have been landed on RRDFs many times already without using an MLP. There have been stern to RRDF, Skin to Skin to Flo/Flo ships, and HSV + LSD to RRDF.
The must be more cost effective method in terms of amphib offload capabilities and sealift ship to amphib interfaces. Instead of throwing money at NASSCO (for further mangled designs), perhaps the Navy should put cranes and ramps on their Gators? Thus improving sealift/amphib interoperability. The LPD-17 (a single stick boat) and current LSDs (with old B&A cranes) could certainly benefit from modern craneage and they are selectively loaded from the start. The LSD(X) aka LX(R) should have larger side ports and ramps AND cranes in its design.
In this era of declining budgets should we use the INLS that are already onboard MPS ships or spend hundreds of millions on more limited capability MLPs?
i'm gonna use that in a post. the more i think about the MLP the more i think its a borderline scandal.
Delete