The April issue is our annual look at expeditionary warfare, which always tends to be heavy with Marine Corps–related and –authored content. Marines punch above their weight in this issue, as they do in Proceedings in general.
From a philosophical standpoint, the most important article this month is Marine Corps Major Aric Ramsey’s “Maneuver Warfare Is More Than Rapid Movement.” There has been a spirited, ongoing debate in our pages about the possible death of maneuver warfare. Major Ramsey makes a compelling case that “maneuver warfare is by no means dead. Its critics have missed the point that [it] is a philosophy, not a doctrine. Maneuver transcends the other forms of warfare. It centers on defeating the fighting spirit of the opponent through a unique combination of methods designed for the situation at hand.” We predict this article is destined to be classic.
Marine Lieutenant Colonels Zach Ota, Dylan Buck, and Brian Strom ask readers to “Reimagine the Role of Amphibious Forces in Campaigning” with a focus on how stand-in forces and Marine expeditionary units can complement each other in both competition and conflict.
In “Beyond Mission Command: Collaborative Leadership,” retired Marines Colonel Pat Garrett and Lieutenant Colonel Frank Hoffman examine the tension between wanting to empower subordinate action, on the one hand, and the need to synchronize and deconflict forces and fires on the other. “Mission command’s emphasis on decision-making and initiative would remain, but collaborative command would stress engaging all commanders from the beginning of planning.”
During Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom, fatality rates for service members wounded in combat were remarkably low because of the ability to provide casualty care within the “golden hour.” The vast distances and antiaccess/area-denial threats presented in the western Pacific, however, could challenge that standard. In “Expeditionary Advanced Medical Care for the Indo-Pacific,” a team of Navy doctors offers a new standard to put 90 percent of injured Marines in a Role 2 care facility within 90 minutes (“90 in 90”) and move them to a Role 3 facility within 3 days (“3 in 3”).
The ongoing war in Ukraine has highlighted the importance of counter-logistics. Drawing on the war’s lessons, Marine Lieutenant Colonel Christian Palmer writes, “Winning the Next War Will Require an Intel-Logistics Partnership.” Our staff jokingly called this the “Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup” article—“You got your intelligence on my logistics; you got your logistics in my intelligence.” The combination works nicely.
We were enthused to see the President address shipbuilding in his 4 March address to Congress. As a result of our February deep dive on the topic, I was invited to visit General Dynamics/Electric Boat in Groton, Connecticut, and Quonset Point, Rhode Island, on 3 March to see how the Virginia- and Columbia-class submarines are built. The scope, scale, and complexity of the operation were, frankly, mind-blowing. Modular construction is key. For example, the future District of Columbia (SSBN-826) is now 55 percent complete, but her modules are still located in three zip codes—Newport News, Groton, and Quonset Point. One fact was indelibly impressed on me: Efficient production requires a steady demand signal backed up by consistent, on-time budgets. As our February authors addressed in various ways, the Navy, industry, the administration, and Congress must work together to make headway.
