By Geoff Fein
The Marine Corps is conducting a force structure review examining what the service will look like in a post-Afghanistan environment, including the future size of the Corps, according to a top Navy official.
The study is going to be conducted by the Force Structure Review Group (FSRG) and will take place over the next several months, Robert Work, undersecretary of the Navy, told attendees at CSIS in Washington, D.C., yesterday.
The study will have input from the incoming and outgoing Marine Corps commandants and will take into consideration the projected future security environment post-Afghanistan, he said.
“It’s going to consider guidance we received in the 2010 QDR and it is going to consider lessons learned over the last seven years of war,” Work said.
“It’s going to outline the size of the organization, post-Afghanistan Marine Corps, and we expect those results sometime in November or December,” he added.
But before the results of the study are released, it will be thoroughly vetted first within the Department of the Navy then the Department of Defense, Work noted.
“So the earliest you might see concrete changes to the structure of the organization and size of the Marine Corps is POM (Program Objective Memorandum) 13,” he said. “But all of the changes will be conditions based on what happens in Afghanistan obviously.”
Work told attendees there are six things he sees that define the character of the Marine Corps.
“First, the future Marine Corps is going to more reflect its naval character,” he said. “The last three commandants have said we want to get back to our naval heritage and our naval roots and I think the whole department and the whole Marine Corps is committed to doing that.”
Whatever the report shows, it is going to indicate a tighter linkage with the Navy, Work added. “That is going to be reflected in a lot of things.”
Work said Marines will be operating from a variety of platforms, for example the Joint High Speed Vessel, Littoral Combat Ship and the amphibious fleet.
“I would not be surprised if the Marine Corps comes up with new and innovative ways to deploy Marines, possibly in smaller packages, possibly distributed, very much in line with what they have been doing the last seven years on land,” he said.
The Navy and Marine Corps are spending a lot of time reviewing the tactical air integration plans to make sure the two services’ plans for their future tactical aviation component are in synch and in synch with what the Navy can afford, Work said.
“I really do believe the Marine Corps and the Navy will continue to move closer and closer,” he said.
The Marine Corps’ equipment density list is second on the list, Work said. “It will be higher than our pre-war density list. This is the equipment the force takes to combat.”
Work told the audience Marines are spread out in all directions in Helmand Province. It has required the Marine Corps to put more crew served weapons, more communications equipment all sorts of different stuff into units to allow them to fight.
“And this we think is kind of what the Marine Corps is really good at, distributed operations. They have been talking about this since the mid ’90s and Marines are actually employing this on the field in a joint way,” he noted. “They have access to joint fires, they redefine close air support.”
For example, at any moment, 24/7, Marines can call for that type of immediate response, Work said.
“There is intelligence being pushed down to the platoon level. It used to be pushed to the battalion level,” he said. “I think it is safe to say the equipment density list will be higher and the Marines will be struggling to figure out the best way to handle this…does everybody get as big an equipment density list? That will be part of the FSRG.”
The future Marine Corps will also rely more and more on unmanned systems, not just air systems but ground platforms too, Work said.
“[Navy] Secretary [Ray] Mabus is going to be unveiling a wide initiative on unmanned systems and Marines have been instrumental in establishing that vision,” Work said. “The things they are thinking about doing are really quite exciting.”
Marines are also going to become much more energy efficient, Work added.
“I just received a clip from 3rd battalion 5th Marines. They have these solar panels; they go out in the field with them set up their little solar fields. They have been operating without any external energy for more than 130 hours,” he said. “That is the type of things where the Marine Corps is doing experimental forward operating bases with solar powered reverse osmosis generators, solar powered things. The Marine Corps is really out in the forefront of establishing tactical energy savings.”
The future Marine Corps is going to need to be light, Work said.
“As [Defense] Secretary [Robert] Gates said over the last seven years, the Marine Corps has become more and more like a second land Army only because of the requirements in the particular theaters they are fighting in,” he said. “But it is clear Marine units are heavier across the board and this is going to be important for us to tackle.”
The Marine Corps has been asked by Gates to produce a ground combat tactical vehicle strategy, which will address the issue of becoming lighter. “The Marines are looking hard at mix and types of vehicles that we have,” Work added.
Lastly, the future Marine Corps, closely supported by the Navy and joint team, is going to be capable of conducting amphibious assaults and joint forcible entry operations, Work said.
“What kind of amphibious capability do we really need to deal with the most likely scenario and then how much,” he said. “We are getting close to an answer that we have been working systematically on since last May.”
Work noted that Mabus, Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Gary Roughead and Marine Commandant James Conway got together to look at the capacity question.
“The size of the fleet was a matter of intense debate within the [Navy] as well as the DoD. We knew that 38 amphibious ships was required for a full up absolutely high-end amphibious assault,” he said. “But when we looked at all the requirements across the department, the CNO, commandant and secretary settled on 33 amphibious ships.”
That number of 33 amphibious ships breaks down into 11 big decks, 11 LPD-17s and 11 LSDs, Work noted. That number also represented the first time the Navy received the Defense Secretary’s approval for 33 ships, he added.
“We are working to get the 10th and 11th LPDs on contract with Northrop Grumman along with the eighth LHA,” Work said. “We won’t put those under contract till we get the price we think those ships should be. We are working hard with Northrop Grumman to make sure we are under contract soon.”
The eighth LHA is scheduled to be built in FY ’16, he added.
The Navy is also working to get the Maritime Landing Platform on contract. Work said the service is working with General Dynamics [GD] to do that.
Well deck size will also be informed by FSRG, Work said. “We need to get this right.”