In a war with China, the joint force will need to quickly establish forward arming and refueling points (FARPs) across the first island chain to enable joint airpower in the weapons engagement zone (WEZ). Among the services, the Marine Corps possesses unique capabilities for securing, establishing, and egressing from advanced bases within the WEZ.
Marine wing support squadrons (MWSS) are the units responsible for constructing and sustaining these critical points. Despite having nine active MWSSs and three reserve MWSSs around the globe, the service still faces challenges in amassing enough assets in the operational area to effectively establish dispersed primary, secondary, and decoy FARPs simultaneously to counter adversary targeting systems.
Establishing and operating forward air bases will require thorough cross-training in bulk fueling, aviation ordnance handling, and air traffic control. FARPs will be crucial for projecting air power into contested domains and overcoming logistical challenges, thereby enhancing operational flexibility and solidifying the Marine Corps’ role as the joint force’s advanced base experts.
The Situation
Given the need to generate long-range precision fires, enabled by ample intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance options, the joint force will be challenged to sustain a high sortie tempo within contested areas. Basing aircraft near or within the adversary’s WEZ would allow more rapid and sustained sorties but also would substantially increase the risk of precious assets being struck on the ground by enemy fire. Therefore, FARPs should be established between primary aircraft bases and the areas in which they will operate to rearm/refuel, conduct emergency maintenance, and replace exhausted aircrew.1 These FARPs must be secured, established, and defended at multiple locations to deny adversaries easy targeting solutions. They also need to be able to be quickly broken down and moved.
The FARP mission is perfectly designed for the Marine Corps, since securing advanced naval bases is one of its key roles. The National Security Act of 1947 states: “The Marine Corps shall be organized, trained, and equipped to provide fleet marine forces of combined arms, together with supporting air components, for service with the fleet in the seizure or defense of advanced naval bases and the conduct of such land operations as may be essential to the prosecution of a naval campaign.”
The Marine air-ground task force (MAGTF) is uniquely qualified to establish FARPs. The combination of joint capabilities under a single commander within a single service allows the Marine Corps to assault, secure, and defend these valuable airfields. The MAGTF’s agility allows it to get in quickly and egress just as fast, denying adversaries easy opportunities to mass fires. Furthermore, the MAGTF’s tailorable design allows commanders to be creative in organizing their units for each specific airfield requirement (large, small, assault, fixed-wing, etc.).
What keeps the Marine Corps from being the go-to advanced airfield unit for the joint force is the lack of Marines trained in the skills required to operate a FARP. Specifically, skills in refueling operating aircraft (hot-fueling), loading ordnance onto operating aircraft, and aircraft control must be present across the force if numerous sites are to run simultaneously. Current regulations make cross-training Marines in these specific areas challenging but not impossible. If Marine Corps flying squadron maintenance departments, logistic units, and air control units could coordinate and cross-train, they could build a bigger, more capable joint advanced base force.
Refueling
Bulk fueling is one of the two primary missions of most FARPs. While in-flight refueling offers some flexibility, ground-based bulk refueling is essential for maintaining operational tempo and ensuring continuous air and ground operations. Examples include Germany during the 1944 Battle of the Bulge and the United States during its 2003 operational pause in Iraq. Both instances saw massive offensives hindered by the lack of fuel and highlight the dire consequences of inadequate bulk fueling.2
The Marine Corps is ideally suited to handle joint bulk fueling since it adheres to U.S. Army vehicle requirements and naval aviation fueling procedures.3 Its expeditionary nature allows the service to rapidly set up FARPs that support both mechanized and aviation units. However, the effectiveness of this capability hinges on having enough trained fuelers in place.
There are approximately 40 bulk fuel Marines assigned to each MWSS, with plans to increase this number by 2027.4 Marine combat logistics battalions also have bulk fuel Marines who can support the MWSS if needed and not already tasked. The primary challenge would be the rapid deployment and rotation of these fuelers. The tempo and distances at which FARPs will need to be established may lead to situations in which Marines and equipment are left in place longer than desired because of a lack of available transportation assets.
To address this, the Marine Corps could request additional fuelers from other branches if they are not needed elsewhere, or it could cross-train Marines already assigned to FARPs. Cross-training brings challenges such as adherence to Naval Air Training and Operating Procedures Standardization (NATOPS) rules but offers a practical and promising solution. Many flying squadrons already have Marines (plane captains, crew chiefs, etc.) with foundational knowledge of fueling procedures, and further training could enhance the service’s bulk fueling capabilities. This approach would allow the MWSS to operate more airfields simultaneously by reducing the need for highly specialized Marines at each site, thereby increasing overall operational flexibility and efficiency.
Aviation Ordnance
In-flight refueling might help minimize the need for fuelers at every FARP, but the one capability that cannot be performed in the air is rearming. Rearming aircraft quickly within the WEZ will be critical. In addition, there are far more aviation ordnance Marines available than fuelers, and with cross-training (and certification) they can rearm most aircraft in the U.S. arsenal. The bottleneck here would be that some aviation ordnance Marines would need to stay back at the main airfield to conduct initial arming and maintenance. Furthermore, every arming team needs at least one quality-assurance safety observer and certified team leader to properly arm the aircraft. These two limitations will challenge the aviation ordnance community to have sufficient teams at all FARPs to rapidly rearm aircraft.
Despite these limitations, some workarounds could be implemented to ensure ample aviation ordnance Marines are available. First, these Marines need to be trained and certified on as many U.S. aircraft as possible before a conflict begins. Even if they cannot be certified on numerous platforms, they should be exposed to multiple type-model-series (TMS) aircraft so they can make do if the situation demands such measures. Second, not every member of a loading team needs to be a technical expert. A big portion of loading ordnance is the manual labor of carrying the munitions. Marines who pass an arms, ammunition, and explosives screening and have some prior experience should be able to help ordnance teams load. Bulk fuelers, plane captains, and air traffic controllers would be ideal members for this augmented team since they would likely already be at the FARPs.
Air Traffic Control
The final limiting factor to Marine Corps FARP capabilities is air traffic controllers. These individuals need not have a 7200 military occupational specialty but could be an aircrew member or someone trained in controlling aircraft in an expeditionary environment. However, for this skill, a qualified air traffic controller or a forward air controller would be ideal. At a minimum though, individuals with previous experience communicating with aircraft or with an understanding of aircraft operations should be assigned to this role.
Enlisted aircrew (crew chiefs or aerial observers) are likely candidates for provisional controllers. These Marines are usually qualified plane captains with experience in fueling and ordnance operations. They could spend time in control towers or with forward air controllers in the field to gain the skills to control aircraft. In addition, pilots and naval flight officers who are not actively qualified to fly could receive similar training in controlling aircraft. Any number of individuals familiar with aircraft or airfield operations could be trained in the role of an auxiliary air traffic controller, but those with flying experience would be able to train faster and be more effective in the role.
Marine wing communication squadrons should be able to source the applicable personnel for this function, but that may not always be possible. As with qualified bulk fuelers and aviation ordnance technicians, the primary service members controlling aircraft at FARPs should be qualified air traffic controllers and forward air controllers. This is a complicated job, and every airfield should strive to have qualified and experienced personnel to prevent mishaps. However, running low on qualified individuals is as likely to affect air traffic control as it is the other two fields. In this case, having provisionally trained Marines would enable operations in the most strained environments.
A fully functional FARP also would need its own command-and-control staff, maintenance personnel, air and ground security, aircraft firefighting and rescue personnel, expeditionary airfield personnel, intermediate-level aviation ordnance technicians, and explosive ordnance disposal technicians.5 Many things can go wrong at a remote FARP, and having a full cast to respond to numerous scenarios would enable FARPs to launch more sorties and recover more aircraft. However, getting people to and from far-flung airfields under tight time constraints would challenge transportation assets even if the adversary was not targeting them.
FARP Cadres
To implement cross-occupational training, the Marine Corps should establish FARP cadres for every TMS aircraft in a Marine aircraft group (MAG). These cadres need not be assigned to a specific squadron, but there should be capabilities within each MAG to extend the reach of squadrons no matter their location, TMS, or operational tempo.
Each of these fire-team- to squad-sized cadres would consist of at least two highly experienced bulk fuelers, one experienced air traffic controller or forward air controller, and a quality assurance/safety observer and team-lead ordnance technician. In addition, each MAG should have enough equipment (radios, tactical aviation ground refueling systems, single-hoist ordnance loading systems, etc.) to operate a small FARP without MWSS support for each of its assigned TMS aircraft.
This team would stay together for six months to a year to ensure ample time to learn. Experts in each community would build a syllabus for each cadre to follow. The cadres would gain a working knowledge of the other two occupational fields and be deployable at a moment’s notice. A secondary function of these cadres would be to move from squadron to squadron within Marine aircraft wings to train their peers in FARP techniques.
A standard day for these teams in garrison might have them arming and launching aircraft at a squadron, sitting in a tower, or working the fuel pits on a flightline. They also would accompany squadrons on deployments for training and attend the Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron One FARP Officer-in-Charge course. No one on the team would be away from their primary occupational specialty long enough to let their qualifications lapse, but all would gain the experience to establish FARPs anywhere and at any time.
Augmenting the Marine Corps’ FARP capabilities will be pivotal for operational success in the WEZ. Establishing specialized FARP cadres would be a strategic approach to overcoming logistical challenges and improving operational flexibility. By cross-training Marines across critical occupations such as bulk fueling, ordnance handling, and air traffic control, the Marine Corps could efficiently deploy and sustain multiple FARPs across dispersed areas. This initiative would use existing expertise and ensure rapid adaptation to the evolving operational picture. Through these measures, the Marine Corps would prepare to fulfill its role as a primary enabler for joint airpower projection within the WEZ.
1. Maj Timothy Warren, USMC, “FARPs Keep Aviation in the Fight,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings 150, no. 1 (January 2024).
2. CWO4 Robert Y. Lee, USMC, “Admiring the Bulk Fuel Problem: Providing Fuel and Energy Sustainment,” Marine Corps Gazette (March 2020).
3. Lee, “Admiring the Bulk Fuel Problem.”
4. Interview with Maj Tyler Sweet, USMC, operations officer, MWSS-174, MAG-24, July 2023.
5. U.S. Marine Corps, Marine Corps Tactical Publication 3-20B: Aviation Ground Support (Washington, DC: U.S. Marine Corps Headquarters, May 2021).