thedrifter
09-12-06, 11:14 AM
September 18, 2006
Sea services look at ways to fight smaller and better
By Christian Lowe and Andrew Scutro
Staff writers
Top Marine Corps and Navy planners are working on ways to split the Marine expeditionary unit into smaller entities, looking at how a ship from a MEU could peel off from its flotilla for a distant mission and still bring enough combat punch to the fight.
The Corps could use the Navy’s futuristic Littoral Combat Ship to accomplish such deployments, said Brig. Gen. Michael Regner, deputy director in the chief of naval operations’ programming office, but there’s a lot of work to do.
“The LCS may not, at this time, have the berthing package … to put a rifle company of Marines” onboard, Regner said at the Sept. 5 Marine Corps Association and U.S. Naval Institute-sponsored Defense Forum in Arlington, Va.
“But do we see LCS giving us greater capability to be forward-engaged in many places to address the potential of irregular warfare? At this time, I’d say yes.”
It’s like taking the Corps’ strategy of distributed operations and applying it to ships, Navy officials said.
The plan is part of a Navy-Marine Corps operations concept finalized Sept. 1 that meshes future deployment methods both services are exploring.
The Navy’s director of strategy and policy, Rear Adm. Phil Cullom, said the so-called “Naval Operations Concept” was signed by Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Mullen and Marine Commandant Gen. Mike Hagee before the Labor Day weekend.
Cullom said the concept is meant to capture the ingenuity of sailors and Marines in the fleet and “at the tip of the spear.” It replaces a 2002 document of the same name.
According to the document, obtained by Marine Corps Times, the goal of the new concept is “more widely distributed forces” providing greater forward presence, as well as “decentralized decision-making and execution based on broad, centralized guidance.”
Rather than serve as a top-down mandate from Navy brass, Cullom said, the Naval Operations Concept is meant to grow upward from the deckplates and off the battlefield.
“When you see it come out in its printed format, you’ll be able to carry it around with you and use that as a training tool for your sailors and Marines and help them help us come up with more ideas — innovative and creative ideas,” he said.
Speaking to reporters after his remarks, Cullom offered the example of the Corps using small units of distributed forces supported by new Navy concepts such as one- or two-ship “global fleet stations,” which are essentially maritime forward operating bases.
Cullom said the NOC covers traditional Navy roles such as forward presence, sea control, expeditionary power projection and crisis response.
But the document also provides concepts for Navy and Marine operations with civilian populations, maritime security operations, counterinsurgencies, counterterrorism and countering proliferation of mass destruction weapons.
Although he said the Navy will soon develop its own operating concept, the latest work is blue and green, Cullom said.
“It’s a naval operating concept for the Navy and Marine Corps,” he said.
The release of the NOC comes amid a swirl of new and developing strategies and plans from the Navy and the Defense Department.
Lt. Sarah Self-Kyler, a Navy spokeswoman at the Pentagon, said the NOC is one of several regularly updated plans, along with the Navy Strategic Plan and the Quadrennial Defense Review.
Self-Kyler said the NOC was being printed the first week of September and will soon be ready for distribution to combatant commanders, fleet commanders and other navy leadership.
A new Maritime Strategy, due out next summer, will guide the Navy into the future, much as “Forward ... From the Sea” of 1992 pushed the fleet from open ocean operations into the littorals, she said.
Andrew Scutro covers the Navy.
Ellie
Sea services look at ways to fight smaller and better
By Christian Lowe and Andrew Scutro
Staff writers
Top Marine Corps and Navy planners are working on ways to split the Marine expeditionary unit into smaller entities, looking at how a ship from a MEU could peel off from its flotilla for a distant mission and still bring enough combat punch to the fight.
The Corps could use the Navy’s futuristic Littoral Combat Ship to accomplish such deployments, said Brig. Gen. Michael Regner, deputy director in the chief of naval operations’ programming office, but there’s a lot of work to do.
“The LCS may not, at this time, have the berthing package … to put a rifle company of Marines” onboard, Regner said at the Sept. 5 Marine Corps Association and U.S. Naval Institute-sponsored Defense Forum in Arlington, Va.
“But do we see LCS giving us greater capability to be forward-engaged in many places to address the potential of irregular warfare? At this time, I’d say yes.”
It’s like taking the Corps’ strategy of distributed operations and applying it to ships, Navy officials said.
The plan is part of a Navy-Marine Corps operations concept finalized Sept. 1 that meshes future deployment methods both services are exploring.
The Navy’s director of strategy and policy, Rear Adm. Phil Cullom, said the so-called “Naval Operations Concept” was signed by Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Mullen and Marine Commandant Gen. Mike Hagee before the Labor Day weekend.
Cullom said the concept is meant to capture the ingenuity of sailors and Marines in the fleet and “at the tip of the spear.” It replaces a 2002 document of the same name.
According to the document, obtained by Marine Corps Times, the goal of the new concept is “more widely distributed forces” providing greater forward presence, as well as “decentralized decision-making and execution based on broad, centralized guidance.”
Rather than serve as a top-down mandate from Navy brass, Cullom said, the Naval Operations Concept is meant to grow upward from the deckplates and off the battlefield.
“When you see it come out in its printed format, you’ll be able to carry it around with you and use that as a training tool for your sailors and Marines and help them help us come up with more ideas — innovative and creative ideas,” he said.
Speaking to reporters after his remarks, Cullom offered the example of the Corps using small units of distributed forces supported by new Navy concepts such as one- or two-ship “global fleet stations,” which are essentially maritime forward operating bases.
Cullom said the NOC covers traditional Navy roles such as forward presence, sea control, expeditionary power projection and crisis response.
But the document also provides concepts for Navy and Marine operations with civilian populations, maritime security operations, counterinsurgencies, counterterrorism and countering proliferation of mass destruction weapons.
Although he said the Navy will soon develop its own operating concept, the latest work is blue and green, Cullom said.
“It’s a naval operating concept for the Navy and Marine Corps,” he said.
The release of the NOC comes amid a swirl of new and developing strategies and plans from the Navy and the Defense Department.
Lt. Sarah Self-Kyler, a Navy spokeswoman at the Pentagon, said the NOC is one of several regularly updated plans, along with the Navy Strategic Plan and the Quadrennial Defense Review.
Self-Kyler said the NOC was being printed the first week of September and will soon be ready for distribution to combatant commanders, fleet commanders and other navy leadership.
A new Maritime Strategy, due out next summer, will guide the Navy into the future, much as “Forward ... From the Sea” of 1992 pushed the fleet from open ocean operations into the littorals, she said.
Andrew Scutro covers the Navy.
Ellie