2-star: Despite challenges, Marines headed back to sea

2015-01-15T09:51:28-05:00

From: Marine Corps Times

The Marine Corps is returning to its roots as a sea-based strike force after 13 years of ground wars, but getting there in fighting shape requires flexibility and resourcefulness, warned Maj. Gen. Robert Walsh.

Walsh, director of the Expeditionary Warfare Division, laid out the plan for getting the Corps afloat again — and the challenges associated with it — during the Surface Navy Association's annual symposium in northern Virginia on Tuesday. Commandant Gen. Joe Dunford is prioritizing Marines' ability to undertake amphibious operations in contested areas, he said.

"As Marines, we want to be sea-based," Walsh said.

But the Navy's amphibious assault ship force needs a chance to recuperate after more than a decade of hard-use, he added. Extended deployments, compressed training cycles and ship substitutions have taken a toll.

"We were running ships too hard and readiness went down," he said.

As the service shifts its focus to the Asia-Pacific region, it still needs to remain at the ready to respond to ongoing and unexpected crises in the Middle East, Africa and Europe. The Corps is looking at placing Marines on new types of Navy vessels, he said, a concept already being tested. Marines experimented with embarking upon nontraditional vessels including an aircraft carrier, destroyer and dry cargo ship last summer.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies hinted at this new approach in the fall, reporting that the Defense Department was working with Congress and the Navy to consider other types of ships as operational platforms.

The versatility of the MV-22B Osprey also has given the Corps more options, Walsh said. For instance, while the joint high-speed vessel cannot support Ospreys, dry cargo ships or mobile landing platform ships like the soon-to-be finished Lewis B. Puller can. They could be used to give land-based special-purpose Marine air-ground task forces — created in part because of the shortage of amphibs — a sea-based platform, Walsh said.

"It has changed how we're looked at in the Marine Corps and [are] called on … for missions," Walsh said of the tiltrotor aircraft.

As for new ships, Walsh praised the America class amphibious assault ship and said the arrival of the amphibious transport dock ships John P. Murtha and Portland in the coming years will bring the amphib force back up to its base level. Budget constraints, though, mean the existing fleet must be carefully maintained and modernized, he warned.

In the meantime the Corps will look to leverage as many assets as it can to get Marines back to sea, Walsh said.

"… Demand on the amphib forces continues to go up and the demand for ship-based or sea-based platforms continues to go up," he said. "The relevancy of the combat power coming from the sea base or operating at sea continues to grow."

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story/military/2015/01/14/marines-emphasize-seaborne-operations/21767341/

Response by TSgt Joshua Copeland made Jan 15 at 2015 9:57 AM

2015-01-15T09:57:32-05:00

I wonder how the lower level marines feel about this.

Response by Capt Richard I P. made Jan 15 at 2015 10:25 AM

2015-01-15T10:25:04-05:00

The United States' expeditionary force in readiness.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 25 at 2015 11:34 PM

2015-02-25T23:34:05-05:00

I just want to make a quick correction on the above photo...the Iwo Jima is the LHD-7, not the LPD-7.

The USS Cleveland was the LPD-7, and the ship I was on with MSSG 15, part of 15th MEU.