WASHINGTON — A U.S. Marine Corps unit spent seven months within the Indo-Pacific testing the service’s warfighting modernization effort, offering a glimpse at what future operations within the region might seem like.
The thirteenth Marine Expeditionary Unit, together with the Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group, spent its entire deployment, from November through June, in the world — the primary time in greater than 20 years that’s happened, in line with the unit’s commanding officer, Col. Samuel “Lee” Meyer.
The thirteenth MEU used this chance to each deal with the challenges and opportunities that include operating in such an unlimited region — with complex island chains and a number of other nearby allies and partners — in addition to discover which existing and emerging technology would best serve the force.
Meyer told Defense News that one particular focus involved experimenting with the Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations concept, and specifically pushing out small groups of Marines to ascertain so-called sensing expeditionary advanced bases throughout the region.
“The sensing EAB provided a risk-worthy, low-cost, low-footprint choice to get eyes and ears on an area where the Navy will not be, or may not have the opportunity to keep up persistence,” Meyer said.
These sensing EABs could include 30-50 Marines who move ashore via aircraft or surface connector. They’d bring the safety and logistics essential to operate for a pair days or even weeks away from the remaining of the Marine expeditionary unit. They’d then get to work sensing the world around their beachhead and reporting back to the remaining of the force.
These Marines used business off-the-shelf tools, Shield AI’s V-BAT drone to offer live video feeds and Simrad Business boating radar to construct maritime domain awareness of their corner of the ocean. That was sent back to the thirteenth MEU, the Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group and the bridges of allies’ ships in real time to tell the actions of the larger naval force.
With the Marine Corps fielding recent gear as a part of its modernization effort, dubbed Force Design 2030, these expeditionary advanced bases may soon include long-range anti-ship missiles through the Navy/Marine Corps Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System program, or NMESIS.
But Meyer said his team was capable of show that, with the suitable integration between his small units ashore and naval forces at sea, there can be several options for engaging enemy targets the sensing EABs find — including shooting Naval Strike Missiles off littoral combat ships.
Leaders of thirteenth MEU toured a littoral combat ship in Singapore. While they didn’t get to experiment at sea with the ship, Meyer said, they learned concerning the LCS configuration and capability, and brainstormed experiments for a future Amphibious Ready Group And Marine Expeditionary Unit, or ARG/MEU, including pairing the sensing EAB ashore with the vessel at sea.
Additionally they discussed allowing Marines to make use of the LCS as a lily pad during long-range operations, landing on the ship’s flight deck for a transient time before resuming operations, or using large amphibious ships to refuel the much smaller littoral combat ships at sea. The Makin Island ARG did refuel the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer Chung Hoon in an experiment through the deployment, but there wasn’t a chance to try it with an LCS.
Within the vast Pacific, “it’s all about logistics,” Meyer said. “And these [amphibious] ships are only a critical piece of that,” given their large fuel tanks, their aviation fuel, stores of dry goods and spare parts, and more.
The team also experimented with information tools, including an Amazon Web Services data analytics system. Meyer said the deployment proved the worth of each the system and having young Marines onboard with additional skill sets, like coding — an follow-on effort from Force Design 2030 referred to as Talent Management 2030.
Experimentation also checked out broader integration of the ARG/MEU into the naval force — specifically the role of the Marine expeditionary unit’s F-35B jets and long-range MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft.
Carrier strike groups are expected to receive part-time access to a pair of their very own CMV-22 Osprey variant for logistics missions, however the Makin Island ARG already had a full squadron of 10 Ospreys embarked for the deployment.
The Marine Corps can also be ahead of the Navy in deploying F-35 Joint Strike Fighters; a full squadron of 10 F-35Bs operated from the amphibious assault ship Makin Island, whereas the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group — operating concurrently within the Pacific — didn’t bring the fifth-generation fighter on deployment.
Meyer also noted that amphibious ships can access shallower waters than the carrier strike group, and the landing craft utility connector can reach shorelines inaccessible to almost the rest within the fleet.
“It highlights areas where we are able to do things that they simply cannot do,” Meyer said.
The Makin Island ARG and the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group conducted expeditionary strike force operations in February, each rehearsing operations with the amphibious forces supporting the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group in command, and rehearsing an amphibious raid operation where the carrier strike group supported the ARG/MEU in command.
Throughout the operations, they used real aircraft within the air but synthetic terrain overlaid onto maps (Meyer said the force didn’t want to seem provocative by conducting a raid on an actual island within the South China Sea). Makin Island served because the air defense lead and commanded all of the Navy aircraft from the Nimitz for about 24 hours through the live-synthetic operation.
“We learned that there may be lots of value that Marine Corps and [its] ARG enablers offer to even a carrier strike group because there are things that they simply cannot do,” the colonel said.
Nevertheless, a few of the power of the Makin Island ARG and thirteenth MEU hinged on the makeup of the three-ship group. The amphibious assault ship (LHD) Makin Island was accompanied by the 2 San Antonio-class amphibious transport docks (LPD) Anchorage and John P. Murtha. An amphibious ready group would typically include one amphibious assault ship, one amphibious transport dock and certainly one of the Navy’s aging dock landing ships (LSD).
Meyer explained that the LSD has a flight deck for helicopters to land and take off, but there isn’t any hangar through which to store and maintain the aircraft. His configuration, with an LHD and two LPDs, meant each ship could have a “mini” Marine Air-Ground Task Force onboard — or a full complement of air, ground and logistics Marines that might disaggregate and perform missions without lacking a selected capability, or come together for larger operations as a full ARG/MEU.
That’s impossible with the LSD, which is unable to keep up an aviation presence onboard.
Meyer said the additional LPD allowed him to maneuver helicopters off the Makin Island and make room for a full squadron of 10 Ospreys and a full squadron of 10 F-35Bs on the amphibious assault ship, making a rather more capable ARG/MEU.
While having two LPDs within the amphibious ready group will grow to be the norm, assuming the Navy continues buying the LPDs or something similar, Meyer said deploying with this configuration now “gave me room to explore configurations in support of Force Design.”
Future ARG/MEUs will proceed to experiment with different sets of aircraft and surface connectors, in addition to recent technologies, because the Corps tries to learn how one can best implement the concepts behind Force Design 2030.
Broadly, Meyer said, “the sheer amount of capability that we now have now in comparison with after I was younger is staggering. The quantity of potential that we now have is staggering. The quantity of intelligence and energy from our young Marines, where everyone has all these ideas and individuals are willing to listen, try, fail, then learn, try again, succeed — it looks like there’s a rather more open mindset from the service into getting it right, not only maintaining the established order.”
Megan Eckstein is the naval warfare reporter at Defense News. She has covered military news since 2009, with a deal with U.S. Navy and Marine Corps operations, acquisition programs and budgets. She has reported from 4 geographic fleets and is happiest when she’s filing stories from a ship. Megan is a University of Maryland alumna.