{"id":22433,"date":"2018-01-09T01:37:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-09T01:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/01\/09\/set-up-to-fail-marines-dont-have-enough-ships-to-train-for-a-real-amphibious-assault\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T20:24:49","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T20:24:49","slug":"set-up-to-fail-marines-dont-have-enough-ships-to-train-for-a-real-amphibious-assault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2018\/01\/09\/set-up-to-fail-marines-dont-have-enough-ships-to-train-for-a-real-amphibious-assault\/","title":{"rendered":"Set up to fail?: Marines don\u2019t have enough ships to train for a real amphibious assault"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For years, the Marine Corps has worked to shift its fighting focus back to the sea and how it might deploy larger units for its traditional amphibious \u00adassault mission if the United States faces a near-peer threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But right now, the Marine Corps does not even have enough ships to train for that contingency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are mounting worries among top Marine officials and defense experts who say that today\u2019s Navy and Marine Corps are not sufficiently trained nor equipped to mount a large-scale invasion from the sea without catastrophic casualties and uncertain success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. Navy\u2019s fleet of amphibious assault ships would be vulnerable to coastal attack from a well-equipped enemy like China because the U.S. Navy ships lack the effective fires, sensors and combat formations to counter enemy \u00addefense systems, according to top military and government officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, today\u2019s Navy fleet is too small to afford the Marines the opportunity to train for large-scale amphibious assaults.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it\u2019s common for the Corps to train with Marine Expeditionary Units, a force of about 2,000 Marines aboard multiple ships, the Navy is rarely able to provide enough ships for Marines to train in the larger formations that a real amphibious assault would require.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the Marines were summoned for a large-scale maneuver from the sea, a well-equipped enemy would likely sink some of their ships and cause massive casualties, said one top Marine official.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGuess what? Some of our ships are going to go to the bottom with these great sailors and Marines,\u201d Marine Maj. Gen. David Coffman, director of expeditionary warfare for the chief of naval operations, said at a recent talk to the Navy League.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top Marine and Navy leaders have laid out plans for modernizing the Corps, \u00adespecially how it integrates with the Navy while fighting in the \u00adcontested \u201clittoral zones\u201d or areas a few hundred miles out to sea, into the \u00adbeachhead and at shorter ranges inland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They agree that the Corps\u2019 Marine Expeditionary Units are well-trained, but near peer threats such as Russia, China, North Korea or Iran would require the use of a Marine Expeditionary Brigade or even a Marine Expeditionary Force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The services\u2019 forcible entry capability, a core competency of the Marine Corps and Navy team, is \u201cat risk\u201d above the MEU level, said Marine Lt. Gen. Brian D. Beaudreault, deputy commandant for plans, policies and operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe ability to generate the number of ships required to train at a Marine Expeditionary Brigade level just simply isn\u2019t there,\u201d Beaudreault told the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness during recent testimony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Navy and Marine Corps do not have enough amphibious ships to both fulfill their naval operations requirements and train at a level much higher than the MEU, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond the MEU, the Corps\u2019 larger \u00adformations include a Marine Expeditionary Brigade with about 15,000 sailors and Marines. The Corps\u2019 largest formation is the Marine Expeditionary Force, which can have more than 62,000 Marines and sailors at its disposal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Marines rarely assemble MEBs and MEFs for training or combat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SHIP SHORTAGE<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The concerns about the Navy\u2019s ability to support the Corps\u2019 amphibious assault capability raise fundamental issues about how Washington \u00admanages the military. Multibillion-dollar shipbuilding \u00adbudgets are notoriously \u00admicromanaged by Congress and have long timelines that span both \u00adRepublican and Democratic administrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such long-term planning decisions for the current fleet were made in times of uncontested seas and when what are now near-peer adversaries lacked the capabilities to effectively deter and deny U.S. forced entry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The size of the Navy fleet overall has been steadily shrinking for decades \u2014 and the amphib fleet is no exception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1990s, the Navy had 62 amphibious warfare ships; today it has 32.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ideally, Marines would like as many as 50 amphibious warfare ships. Officially, current plans aim to reach 34 by fiscal year 2021 and an end goal of 38 by 2033.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The number of 38 was reached back in 2009 when the then commandant and CNO determined that they could fund 34 ships but would need 38 to support two MEBs, factoring in 10 percent of ships down for maintenance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ship shortage and its impact on Marine training was highlighted by a recent Government Accountability Office report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Navy could not fulfill 93 percent, or 293 out of 314, of the Marine Corps\u2019 requests for amphibious training for the San Diego-based I MEF. And nearly half of the 40 requests from North \u00adCarolina-based II MEF went unfilled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cary Russell, the director of the GAO\u2019s defense team, told lawmakers that the small fleet size and the current \u201cad hoc\u201d way in which ships are assigned to \u00adMarine units awaiting deployment, fell \u201cconsiderably short of being able to complete amphibious training operations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf called on, these units could be left scrambling to obtain last minute training, risking their ability to be fully ready once deployed and underway,\u201d Russell said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But getting more ships may be a pipe dream when the Marines are competing in a tight budget environment with major Navy priorities such as next generation submarines, said retired Marine Col. David C. Fuquea, professor at the U.S. Naval War College.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI get it, there\u2019s not enough amphib ships, but there never has been and there won\u2019t be in the future,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FIRES<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enemy shore defenses have improved significantly during the past 20 years. And while building more U.S. Navy ships would help, that alone will not solve the problem without better fires capabilities and sensors, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently Marines have put the typically land-based High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, aboard ships and struck targets on shore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, they have asked industry for a mobile, shore-based \u00adanti-ship missile system to defend \u00adMarines ashore from attacks at sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Today\u2019s Navy fleet is too small for the Marines to train for large-scale amphibious assaults. (Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Apprentice Jailene Casso\/Navy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But the stand-off ranges of up to 400 miles that some adversaries\u2019 coastal defense systems provide may keep U.S. ships out of the fight if they can\u2019t also be lethal, Coffman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe amphibious fleet is a challenge with the price of entry in this age of fires,\u201d Coffman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though some experts have called for an increase in naval gunfire, adding 16-18-20 inch guns back onto ships, \u00adCoffman said the future is likely in \u00adrockets and missiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marine Commandant Gen. Robert Neller has acknowledged some of those concerns about ships being ill-equipped for a large-scale fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf the enemy has a capability to shoot my large ship or my destroyer or my \u00adcarrier from a couple hundred nautical miles away \u2014 or maybe longer \u2014 I\u2019ve got to do something about that,\u201d Neller said in September at the annual Modern Day Marine conference in Quantico, Virginia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why it\u2019s important that all of these ships have the capability to do some sort of strike or denial, or some way to suppress that capability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The solution may be tactical, Neller said. The Marine Corps does not plan to \u201cland directly into the teeth of an enemy defense,\u201d Neller said. Instead, the Corps will find gaps in an enemy\u2019s defenses to put Marines ashore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Marine Corps also has options to disrupt or destroy enemy sensors and defenses, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CRUISE SHIPS<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fuquea, the retired colonel, has long argued that the force must look at alternatives to amphibious assault ships for getting Marines to shore with the right equipment, and fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said alternatives could include adopting tactical vehicles that will fit inside the V-22 Osprey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, the retired colonel said that new civilian cruise ships can travel faster and carry more Marines than many amphibious ships. The Corps could use cruise ships, rigged with fast-moving boats on the side of the ships and refitted to hold gear and Marines for quick launches from farther distances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using commercially available boats such as the CB90, a fast attack assault craft that can carry a tactical vehicle and 18 Marines, units could move more fighters and the necessary equipment to the shore much faster, and cheaper, than in amphibious tracked vehicles, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The boat travels nearly three times as fast as the current Amphibious Assault Vehicle in use to connect Marines from ship to shore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without enough gators, the Marine Corps has been experimenting with transporting Marines on other types of military and commercial ships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During last year\u2019s Koa Moana \u00adtheater security exercise, Marines spent six months embarked on maritime \u00adprepositioning ships Pililaau and \u00adSacagawea, both Military Sealift Command cargo ships, for training missions in Australia, New Guinea and Peru.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But alternative ships like these are not meant for combat operations, Lt. Gen. David Berger \u2014 now commander of MARFORPAC \u2014 said in March 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re in a high-intensity conflict where you have to have a really tough time penetrating a high-end \u00addefense, you\u2019re not going to plow in there with an aluminum hull anything, not for very long,\u201d said Berger, who led I MEF at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

William Lloyd Stearman, a National Security Council staff member under four presidents, has argued for creating a \u201cfloating fortress\u201d by converting a civilian supertanker used for shipping cargo into a heavily-armed platform that could launch helicopters, jets and boatloads of Marines and gear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The concept would add firepower to enable the ship to both show force and produce enough offensive force to enter contested amphibious positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe expeditionary ship\u2019s very large deck could accommodate a variety of helicopters, as well as jet fighters and a fleet of drones,\u201d Stearman wrote in a recent Wall Street Journal commentary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt could also store an array of offensive and defensive missiles in its hull, while defensive weapons would stand ready on the deck.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that a supertanker ship\u2019s complement would include a MEU-sized force or larger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peter Singer, a strategist for the New America Foundation and co-author of the book \u201cGhost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War,\u201d said to overcome the fires problem, Marines are looking at new methods to attack from the sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said future amphib assaults will mean more landings deeper inland combined with shore assaults.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Marines are already working with unmanned ships and other ways to take humans out of harm\u2019s way in battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMake it robotic\u2026how do we use robotics to be in those first waves so that they\u2019re the ones taking risks, forcing the enemy to reveal where their weapons are so that we can take them out?\u201d Singer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fuquea said that the distance \u00adprovided by alternative connectors and \u00adplatforms to deliver Marines to the fight could clear up funding to better arm the existing amphibious ships. He also argued that while the range of adversaries\u2019 fires is longer, it isn\u2019t necessarily as accurate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Current methods require ships to be 12 miles offshore to deliver Marines to the beachhead, he said. But with different connectors, such as the CB90s and others, Marines could assault from over the horizon, as far as 100 miles from the beach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That distance would increase the length of coast that the adversaries must protect, stretching their defensive capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the mission remains similar to what the \u00adNavy-Marine-Special \u00adOperations Forces have done for decades, and expanding those joint \u00adoperations will be key to future \u00adsuccess, Coffman said. \u201cNavy + Marine + SOF is the answer to the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But despite the concerns about ship shortages and adversaries\u2019 ability to keep ships at a distance, Singer said, the Corps still has a unique capability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou could flip it the other way: For all of the complaints, it\u2019s a capability that no other nation has,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senior reporter Jeff Schogol contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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