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MARINE CORPS AIR STATION CHERRY POINT, N.C. - War is a team effort. The Marine Corps has acknowledged this since its creation, when sailors would sail the Navy’s ships while Marines would protect them from boarding parties. During World War II, aircraft carriers had replaced battleships as the sea’s heavy-hitters. By 1962, the Marine Corps sought to integrate airpower with forward-deployed ground forces and create the ultimate war-fighting team.
The concept of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force was formalized by Marine Corps Order 3120.3 in 1962 and airpower has since played a role in expanding the capabilities of sea-born Marine forces.
“A Marine Expeditionary Brigade was to be created to optimize the combat power of the force by combining its ground, air, and combat service support elements in a way that provided exponential enhancement of force capabilities as a whole,” said Maj. Michael B. West in a study for the School of Advanced Warfighting.
“The combat power of the combined arms task force was proven to be much greater than the simple sum of its component elements.”
Initially, MAGTFs were ad hoc units brought together from elements of Marine aircraft wings, Marine divisions, and Marine logistics and dispatched immediately to the point of crisis. While the theory looked good on paper, there were some problems. A lack of training hindered cooperation between the components of the MAGTF and technology hindered the deployment of the Air Combat Element.
To solve the problem of unit cohesion, the Marine Corps organized a system where Marine Expeditionary Units would stand up and train together, deploy, and stand down again.
“We didn’t form up way before a deployment,” said retired Maj. Gen. Thomas A. Braaten, former commanding general of Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point. “You met on the docks, so to speak. We didn’t have the long-term build up, which is one of the huge advantages of the Marine Expeditionary Unit today. They form up six months before a deployment and work together the whole time. The coordination has really improved greatly.”
According to Braaten, the advantage lies in the leaders of the MEU knowing each other. If they’ve been with each other for a long time, they start to think alike, Braaten explained. This leads to more effective planning and execution.
As for technology, vertical and short take-off and landing capable aircraft wasn’t a factor until the 1970s. Because of this, the ACE had to be hosted by countries near the MAGTF’s area of operations, which could be troublesome for two reasons. One, diplomacy often prevented American assets from being deployed to countries afraid of their neighbor’s violent responses to cooperation with U.S. forces. Two, the logistics of having to operate from land instead of ships hampered their ability to project force alongside the rest of the MAGTF.
The invention of the AV-8A and AV-8B Harriers solved the ACE’s problem of not being able to easily accompany the MAGTF. These versatile aircraft became a great advantage for MAGTF forces afloat because they carried larger bombs and payloads than helicopters.
“With the Harriers, we’ve got some serious firepower,” Braaten said. “Instead of shooting some rockets with a Cobra, you can drop some serious ordnance. That has made the MEU a much more lethal weapon than it used to be. With the Harrier, you can do a lot without having to use someone else’s sovereign territory and go through all the diplomatic obstacles.”
The ability to forward-deploy aircraft aboard ships proved valuable during the Falkland Islands War between the United Kingdom and Argentina in 1982. The Falklands had no runways capable of accommodating military jets needed for air superiority, forcing the Argentinians to launch all aircraft from their mainland restricting their airpower. The British, on the other hand, had Harriers immediately available from their ships. Argentina lost the war and the British reclaimed the Falkland Islands in part because of their advantage in airpower.
The most recent upgrade to the ACE came with the MV-22 Osprey. Its fast flight, and vertical take-off and landing hybrid abilities expanded operations of the Ground Combat Element. It could carry troops to the destination faster than conventional helicopters, allowing for greater flexibility of the MAGTF as a whole.
Braaten pointed out that the Osprey can be launched well ahead of the MAGTF to complete certain missions, such as the tactical recovery of aircraft and personnel that occurred in Libya when an Air Force aircraft crashed due to technical problems. They can also be used for quickly evacuating embassies or any mission that calls for a fast insertion or extraction of people. The CH-53E Super Stallion, a variation of the original CH-53A Sea Stallion, introduced to the Marine Corps in the 1960s, is also used for evacuations, insertions and extractions, but trades speed for the ability to carry up to a 16-ton load, or 32,000 lbs.
While the MAGTF and it’s ACE are forces to be reckoned with already, they will continue to change and adapt to future missions. They are powerful composite forces now and will remain so for the foreseeable future.
“What goes inside the MEF, MEB or MEU may change considerably,” said Braaten. “They may change depending on who they’re going to fight and the weapons systems they’re going up against. However, basic MAGTF concept is good and will probably be good forever.”
| Date Taken: | 08.04.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 08.05.2011 13:27 |
| Story ID: | 74895 |
| Location: | MARINE CORPS AIR STATION CHERRY POINT, NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 165 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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