The Marine Corps is refining plans for a large-scale wargame scheduled
for 2004.
In the experiment, called Olympic Dragon, live forces will probe
new concepts of operations designed to improve the command and control
of Marine units as they disembark and prepare for combat inland.
Marine combat planners, for example, will attempt to figure out
how the forces should employ advanced over-the-horizon communications
technologies in ways that will help bridge the “digital divide”
between commanders and troops on the front lines.
The point of the exercise is to shape future training and doctrine
for the conduct of what is known in Marine parlance as “ship
to objective maneuver.” Specifically, the Marines want to
enhance their capabilities to plan operations on the move. To make
that happen, commanders from various segments of a Marine Expeditionary
Unit—air and ground forces—need to be able to share
data, in real time, about the status and location of all the MEU
elements, as well as robust communications networks, so they can
coordinate their efforts.
Spearheading the Olympic Dragon effort is the Marine Corps Warfighting
Laboratory, a $40 million organization responsible for planning
wargames and for developing and testing new technology.
The lab’s commander, Col. Frank A. Panter Jr., said that
Olympic Dragon is part of a “transformation roadmap”
designed to improve Marine tactics, training and equipment, so they
can gain “speed, precision and stealth” in combat operations.
The Corps’ new commandant, Gen. Michael W. Hagee, seems enthusiastic
about future wargames and the idea of experimenting with new technology,
said Panter, who recently briefed Hagee on Olympic Dragon.
The notion of “on the move, over-the-horizon command, control
and communications” is at the core of the transformation that
the Marines are seeking in future warfare tactics, Panter explained.
The end result, he said, would be for every Marine to share a “common
operational picture” of the battlefield and to “be able
to talk to each other and have operational situational awareness
of what everyone is doing.
“If I were going to pick one thing, it’s ‘command
and control,’” Panter said. “How can we get this
common operational picture that would benefit all elements of the
MAGTF [Marine air ground task force]?”
Shortly after Panter spoke with National Defense, he was on his
way to Okinawa, Japan, to visit Marines stationed there. He wants
to stay in touch with the “operational forces,” Panter
said, “to get their opinions on the way ahead for the war-fighting
lab.”
Future wargames, additionally, will tackle the Navy’s new
concept of expeditionary strike groups and how they would interact
with the Marine air-ground task force.
An expeditionary strike group is a modified, more heavily armed
version, of the traditional amphibious ready group. Currently, an
amphibious ready group consists of a flat-deck amphibious assault
ship and two amphibious cargo ships. Cruisers and destroyers deploy
with carrier battle groups.
The ESG would include amphibious ships, a destroyer, cruiser, frigate,
attack submarine and a P-3C Orion reconnaissance aircraft.
The Navy potentially could deploy two ESGs, one from each U.S.
coast.
Even though the Marine Warfighting Lab is not involved in the ESG
experimentation, Panter said, the new concept is being incorporated
into lab wargames. He characterized the expeditionary strike group
as “an enhancement to force projection of the naval force.”
However, “Some of the issues that have to be worked out are
command related.”
During his first month on the job, Panter attended the wide-ranging
exercise called Millennium Dragon, held in August at the former
George Air Force Base, in the California desert. In urban combat
drills, the Marines experienced heavy losses, even though they were
employing advanced weapons, sensors and reconnaissance robots.
The lesson from that wargame, said Panter, is that the Marines
must continue to shape up their urban warfare skills.
Nevertheless, the plan is not to make Olympic Dragon all about
urban warfare tactics, but rather about the entire experience of
“ship to objective maneuver,” including urban warfare,
but primarily the execution of command-and-control functions, on
the move. Other priorities for Olympic Dragon are fire support,
mine countermeasures and combat-service support. That is not surprising,
given Panter’s extensive experience as a combat engineer.
“Experimentation should be related to STOM [ship to objective
maneuver],” he said. “We’ve done a lot with urban
combat.”
Urban combat, however, “is not dropping off the plate. ...
But it’s part of everything that affects STOM.”
Improvements in “situational awareness”—achieved
by networking battlefield sensors—will help lower the high
level of casualties seen in Millennium Dragon, Panter said. “We
have some great sensor technology. But we have to get it into a
grid, to give a total picture.”
Panter calls the sensor network the “RSTA grid,” which
stands for reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition.
“Greater situational awareness [via the RSTA grid] will enhance
capabilities and reduce casualties,” he said. One of the experiments
at Olympic Dragon, for instance, will have Marines operate a network
of Iridium satellite phones, in order to help achieve a “common
tactical picture.”
Technology alone, nonetheless, won’t solve all the problems,
he cautioned. That is why the lab plans to propose new training
concepts and facilities for urban warfare.
“We learned that in urban combat, training is very critical,”
said Panter. Marine studies have shown that, with proper training,
casualties from urban combat fall by 15-20 percent.
It should be obvious to anyone who has seen the movie “Black
Hawk Down,” that the threats associated with urban wars are
“not that sophisticated,” he said. “You give a
guy an AK-47, a cell phone and an RPG [rocket propelled grenade],
that’s a pretty serious threat.”
In recent years, he noted, “A lot of folks thought that pure
technology was the answer.” In reality, “it’s
in the training where you get most of the return.”
But commanders seeking to train a unit for urban combat often find
that the facilities available are not large enough to make the training
as effective as fighting in a real city. The urban training sites
found today in the United States, for example, cannot support combined-arms
experiments for a battalion-size unit.
For the training to be useful, said Panter, “you can’t
focus on a particular scenario at all times. You have to address
the full spectrum of combat.”
The exercise at George AFB was a successful training experience,
because it’s a large complex, with large numbers of buildings
and houses, he said. “That is what you need for urban combat
training. ... If you have a facility with only 20-30 buildings,
the Marines will quickly become familiar with what’s around
it. After a point, it doesn’t offer new challenges.”
A Marine source said that the Corps is lobbying for the construction
of a new urban training facility in Guam, which would be comparable
to the one at George, also known as Victorville. George—plagued
by asbestos—is being shut down and must undergo environmental
remediation. A Marine unit recently was training in Guam, as part
of a so-called “squad advanced marksman” program.
Another possibility is a new MOUT (military operations in urban
terrain) training site at 29 Palms, Calif., which would be sponsored
by the Joint Forces Command.
The Warfighting Lab, said Panter, also is involved in planning
and conducting campaign-style wargames known as Title X, because
the results often are used to make weapon-buying decisions. The
Title X legislation gives each service the authority to train and
equip its forces.
“In the last year, we devoted more attention and resources
to it,” said Panter. During the 1990s, the Marines had cut
much of the funding for Title X wargames, and the service was criticized
for that. The chief of the Marine Corps Combat Development Command,
Lt. Gen. Michael Hanlon, has pushed for the resurgence of Title
X wargames, said Panter. “We are taking it more seriously
now.”
Hanlon also has advocated closer collaboration between the Marine
Corps and the Army. “We are in dialogue with them on transformation
efforts,” Panter said. During Millennium Dragon, Marine units
operated in a command-and-control network with an Army Stryker platoon.
“We learned a lot about trying to communicate and share information,”
he added.
In the short term, Panter wants to fulfill some immediate needs
for Marines in the field. During the war in Afghanistan, they realized
that they lacked adequate excavating machines to dig fortifications
and fighting positions. “It bothers me to still see Marines
in this day and age manually digging a fighting hole,” said
Panter.
The lab has been shopping for Bobcat-style, helicopter-transportable
machines that can dig field fortification and fighting positions,
as well as equipment to repair runways.