Change is like a dragon, the Chinese say: If respected and handled properly, it can be a potent ally. In this spirit. Marine Corps planners of the 1930s, working at Quantico. challenged the conventional wisdom that amphibious assaults were obsolete. Their boldness and creativity in the face of skepticism, laid the groundwork for America’s unparalleled success in amphibious warfare during World War II.
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the same kinds of Marines—again at Quantico—did it again when they developed, tested, and demonstrated the concept of vertical envelopment using helicopters.
Today, Marines at Quantico are working with all the vigor of their predecessors to prepare the Marine Corps for the battlefields of the future. General Krulak created the Commandant’s Warfighting Laboratory (CWL) shortly after assuming his post last summer. In his words, its mission is “To serve as the cradle and test bed for the development of enhanced operational concepts, tactics, techniques, procedures, and doctrine which will be progressively introduced into the FMF [Fleet Marine Force] in concert with new technologies.”
It is axiomatic that no process of exploration and experimentation is conducted without some disappointments and occasional failures. Some ideas will be validated—others will be discarded. Yet it is imperative that, in the face of the radical changes in warfare presently underway, we seek answers to the challenges Marines will face in the future. Either we ride the dragon skillfully into an uncertain future—or the dragon devours us.
The reality of austere defense budgets and the likelihood of continued force reductions make the writing on the wall clear: we simply cannot continue to conduct business as usual. The Laboratory already is embarked on a series of advanced-concepts experiment under a broad conceptual framework known as Sea Dragon.
Technology is creating opportunities for enhanced C41, fires, mobility, and sustainment on a greatly extended battlefield. It follows that current Marine air-ground task force (MAGTF) doctrine, equipment, tactics, techniques, and procedures must be reviewed for present applicability. Tradition is important—but we must not allow a tried-and-true philosophy to suppress needed innovation.
Shared situational awareness—from fire-team to MAGTF commander—is a key Sea Dragon concept. Information exchange must be made more rapid and the information itself must be reliable—and useful to its users. To this end, we see great utility in a number of emerging technologies. For example, it is likely that future MAGTFs soon will be capable of launching an artificial satellite that provides switching and communications relays between units and their headquarters from a geostationary position miles above the battlefield. The concept includes the creation of a webbed battlefield, linking all elements with a data base that can be accessed by any element based on the unit’s individual.
Digital burst transmission and built-in Global Positioning System (GPS) hardware could reduce or eliminate the “Where are you and what are you doing?” queries and replies that plague small units and overload present communications nets. Information sharing would replace information processing as an operative principle.
Streamlined combat service support is another fundamental guiding concept. Lethal, accurate weapons threaten a landing force’s traditional large logistical footprint ashore, and fixed logistical installations are becoming prohibitively vulnerable. Increased seabasing on board specially designed ships and the use of unmanned aircraft offer some solutions. Alternate sources of energy may offer more radical solutions. In some cases, new ideas that exploit existing technology may be more important than new technology.
Engagement coordination is a third key concept that might help modify or replace present fire-support coordination doctrine and procedures. At its essence, engagement coordination means the streamlined exchange of target data and firing solutions between terminal controllers and firing agencies—and streamlined decision making. It may be possible to reduce the 25-30 minutes now required to deliver accurate, lethal fires to two to four minutes. The concept builds upon the Navy’s pioneering work in cooperative engagement.
Technologies that support these guiding concepts will be identified and exploited in the course of experimentation. The Laboratory has established close working relationships with industry, the Fleet Marine Force, and other-service laboratories to take advantage of their advances.
An experimental special-purpose MAGTF (SPMAGTF[X]) will test these and other experimental concepts during a Lab-sponsored advanced warfighting experiment (AWE) at the Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center (MCAGCC), 29 Palms, California, during February 1997; it will be held in conjunction with the Army’s Digitization of the Battlefield (DOTB) effort at Fort Irwin, California, also to be held that month. The staff is presently forming at Quantico under the cognizance of the Laboratory’s Director. Its ground, aviation, and service support elements, all from I Marine Expeditionary Force, have been identified and will chop to SP- MAGTF(X) later this year. During the experiment, the task force will operate against a traditionally organized and equipped opposing force in a series of force-on-force exercises.
New U. S. Navy initiatives in technology, naval surface fire support, and air support—such as Jaeger aviation (See “Say It in Pilot Talk,” and “The Making of a Jaeger Pilot,” Proceedings, February 1996, Pages 39-43)—are of great interest and applicability to the concepts inherent in Sea Dragon. The Laboratory has established a continuous dialogue and working relationship with a number of Navy agencies. including the Naval Research, the Naval Surface Weapons Center at Dahlgren. Virginia, and the Third Fleet, and Naval Air Force, Pacific, at San Diego, California.
The Laboratory also has formulated a five-year plan that will foster experimentation and has proposed the establishment of a three-phase Sea Dragon Advance Concept Technology Demonstration:
- Phase I. Operation Hunter Warrior, includes the 29 Palms test and a number of limited objective experiments to study new concepts and technologies. These include small unit survivability and training, targeting indirect fires, command element use of pattern analysis and decision support, combat service support, and less-than-lethal capabilities.
- Phase II, Operation Urban Warrior, will be a series of limited-objective experiments culminating in an AWE that will explore targeting and the use of precision indirect fires, communications, less-than-lethal technology, sustainment, and tactical mobility/maneuver in an urban environment.
- Phase III. Operation Capable Warrior, will include some currently conceived limited-objective experiments and others that emerge from Phases I and II. Currently conceived limited objective experiments include the command and coordination of large forces, next-generation naval fires, long-range tactical air mobility, and the use of deception at the operational level. Capable Warrior will consist of Fleet- and MEF-level operations using a synthetic theater of war, simulation, and actual units.
Sea Dragon can be as important to the Naval Expeditionary Force of 2000 and beyond as the amphibious doctrine initiatives undertaken at Quantico in the 1930s were to the Navy-Marine Corps team during World War II. In a tradition firmly established by our predecessors, today’s Marines realize that what makes them relevant and capable today may not meet tomorrow’s challenges. The Dragon cannot be muzzled.
Major Sutherland is a Current Operations Officer, Experimental Operations Division, Commandants Warfighting Lab. An infantry and assault amphibian officer, he commanded a company in the 6th Marines, 2d Marine Division, during Operations Desert Shield-Desert Storm.