As violent protests erupted across the Middle East and North Africa this fall, the 4,000 Marines and sailors comprising the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit and the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group were on alert, ready to go in. In fact, they remained on that status for 150 days, the majority of their deployment in the 5th and 6th Fleet areas of operations.No one is noticing a few indisputable facts.
The tension may have reached its zenith on Sept. 14, when protestors, angry over an anti-Islam online video, attacked the U.S. Embassy in Sudan. The crisis-response force for top military commanders in the region, including U.S. Central Command, was prepared to go and waited for the order to respond, said Col. Frank Donovan, the 24th MEU commander
The Marine Corps MEU has the reinforcement mission. The Marine Corps has never developed other units to perform this role for one simple reason.
No other rapidly deployable MARINE combat formation has the power to provide a CREDIBLE deterrent.
Suddenly, the Commandant of the Marine Corps has decided to develop not ONE special embassy reinforcement unit but TWO!
via the Marine Times (26April2013)....
The Marine Corps will soon be able to dispatch squad-level teams for immediate embassy security reinforcement as the service responds to calls to better protect diplomatic facilities in the wake of September’s deadly attack in Benghazi, Libya.Give this issue to a competent Infantry Fire Team Leader in the Fleet and he'll tell you why this isn't a good idea. I'm assuming that thinking equal to that resides somewhere at HQMC.
The Security Augmentation Unit will be based in Quantico, Va., as part of the Marine Corps Embassy Security Group, according to a Marine Corps official at the Pentagon. It will be composed of nine or 10 squad-level teams, totaling between 120 and 130 Marines, he said.
If these formations aren't tactically sound then they must be politically expedient...perhaps an attempt to provide the right visuals to a suspect public that remains concerned about the handling of the Libya Embassy Crisis?
NOTE: Any further discussion of whether or not these "new" units are actually needed versus them being necessary for political expediency can be set aside with a quick glance at Marine Corps concepts.
One of those concepts includes "mini-ARGs" and "Company Landing Teams". This would have an Amphibious Ready Group splitting up and the LHA sailing to one crisis location, the LPD (especially the new San Antonio class ships) sailing to a different one etc... On board each ship would be reinforced Company Landing Teams and they would be backed up in the case of the LPD with AH-1Zs and on the LHA F-35s/Harriers. The transports would be allocated as necessary and the situation would be handled.
Once the crisis was over the ARG would reform and continue operations. If a crisis in a location proved too big for a Company Landing Team to perform then the ARG would reform to carry out THAT mission.
The idea that the Marine Corps is establishing a Crisis Response Force and Reinforcement Squads is an example of current leadership SHITTING away years of planning/operational experience.
These two new units are bullshit. Plain and simple.
I thought we already had these. Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Teams (FAST) have been around for a long time including a FAST company in Spain. Not sure how these are different from the "new' teams.
ReplyDelete^ That's what I was thinking as well.
Deletewhich is why everyone is wondering what the hell is going on at HQMC! we have a specialty unit (FAST) which is light weight and able to deploy to any location at anytime. additionally we MEU's which are forward deployed and in position to act in most cases.
Deletethese two new units are just fluffing on a cake and make no sense.
Also do not forget uptime. The MV-22 is good for roughly 70% just sitting there, so out of the 6 MV-22 expect about 4 to be good to go at any given time. Out of those 4 only 3 will be ready to make a second trip. So you have 7 MV-22 loads, which if you work at it and it is not too hot, can carry roughly a company of Marines. You will probably be on your own for about 24 hours after that though.
ReplyDeleteThis makes me think that combatant commander/president/SECDEF will never even allow this unit to go anywhere. So they will train, do miserable accountability and readiness drills and sit there when a crisis actually does happen.
I thought you would bring that up. MEUs already have this mission. If only we would give them enough O&S funds.
ReplyDeleteyeah quite honestly this would be better as a USAF/US Army mission. some Rangers or other Infantry on alert and then you have the USAF CV-22 provide transport...since they're actually equipped as penetrators with KC-130's and F-16's flying gas and providing cover respectively.
Deletethat force would make sense but not this nonsense.
As I understand the current plan, you have FAST and Agency COLTs for intel and SITREPS. Also DoS has contractors that are not accounted for. Then the 173rd ABN covers the Med and Rangers for the Pacific and South America. Securing embassies is part of their METL that they train for. MEUs are for MASCASEVAC and NEOs or when crap really hit that fan like Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, ..ect was ready to do a while a back with all these “Spring” movements.
ReplyDeleteThe Marines expect any unit arriving as Cavalry to be sucked into an encounter that they cannot extract from, as a trap or just bad luck the mission at it's worse would require more and more effort with a climbing number of troops until an entire MEU is involved. Call it the rescue tar baby event much as it was in the raid on Koh tang Island to rescue the crew of the Mayaguez in 1975 which continued to suck in Helo's and Marines until the event looked as if it was going to reignite the Vietnam war for America. In the end Marines dead and alive were left on the beach with two fighting to the last while being hunted by Cambodian troops.
ReplyDeleteToo small a unit gets eaten too large becomes another even bigger fight.
The best winning scenario was summed up by Nathan Bedford Forrest as "get there the firstest with the mostest" as the best winning strategy.
Or as Martin Sheen's character in apocalypse now said, "Never get off the boat, fuckin' A right, never get off the boat unless your willing to go all the way" The worst possible event is the one that happened in Benghazi where No Decision was made, Hell any decision is better than vacillating between what to do and what the end game would be politically as our guys fought and died while the POTUS and his people either stood and watched or simply went to bed.
I would like to note that this force being put under the Marine Corps Embassy security Group (MCESG) look as though it’s nothing more than an extension of that program. Despite what the HQMC likes to say the mission of the MCESG is not to defend an Embassy or post from attack; this is more the job of the FAST companies. Being a former MSG I can see the usefulness of having a group of MSG not being assigned to one post, but being able to be sent back and forth from one post to the other. During time of duress at diplomatic post overseas the hours of operation and number of people working at the post can increase. You can see a large influx of TDYs and the post will be operating 24/7. For a detachment only set up to work a small post only open 7 to 5 this putts a great strain on the MSG there. This is a really good idea for the MCESG to do as these team can also be used to perform a large number of other tasks within the group without have to leave posts undermanned. MSG do play an important role in securing diplomatic post, but to say these team are going to be used to defend post overseas just seems to be a grab for the money now being thrown at any having to do making diplomatic post more safe.
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