By Walker Mills
US Navy officer Jeong Soo Kim joins the program to discuss his recent essay in USNI Proceedings, “Design the Littoral Combat Team Around Its Core Mission.” Kim argues that the Marine Corps should make new Marine Corps organizations less infantry-centric in order to optimize them for Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations (EABO), and talks about the relationship between Navy and Marine Corps engineer units.
Download Sea Control 322 – Marine Corps Infantry’s Role in EABO
Links
1. “Design the Littoral Combat Team Around Its Core Mission,” by Jeong Soo Kim, USNI Proceedings, November 2021.
2. “Sacred Cows for What? Considering Force Structure Cuts to the Infantry,” by Walker Mills, CIMSEC, November 2019.
3. “Where is the NECC?” by Walker Mills, Marine Corps Gazette, December 2019.
4. “Preparing for the Future: Marine Corps Support to Joint Operations in the Contested Littorals,” by David Berger, Military Review, May 2021.
5. “Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations Handbook: Considerations for Force Development and Employment,” June 1, 2018.
6. “Tentative Manual for EABO,” US Marine Corps, 2020.
Walker Mills is Co-Host of the Sea Control podcast. Contact the podcast team at Seacontrol@cimsec.org.
This episode was edited and produced by Marie Williams.
Decent interview, I commend the young man for sticking chin out there. But his youth showed with so much lack of knowledge on the non infantry side of the Corps. First, he is correct that the level of Infantry skill will need to increase in support Marines; the level that he thinks they are is off the mark. A company of Combat Engineer would run circles around a SeaBee Battalion in Infantry Skillcraft. While non Infantry Marines are not 0311 Infantry Riflemen when tasked they are still very good Infantryman and there are many GWOT examples to pull from that exemplify that:
-Camp Bastion: Pilots & mechs repel & kill sapper attack
-Sec Det Ramadi: 2MARDIV Provisional Rifle Co. composed of supply, admin, and maintenance Marines attached to the various Inf Bn assigned Ramadi
-Marine Security Det Green Zone Baghdad
-SOCOM DET-1: Read Navy SEAL LTCMDR Mark Devine’s analysis of the non DASR support Marines of Det-1. They were the Dets QRF and could run through any shooting drill his SEALs could. They were admin & supply clerks with less than 6mths CQB trailing and various high level IA training .
Second thing is what he said he would address, and that’s the main differences between a CEB and a SeaBee Bn. It isn’t philosophical per se but tasking. Marine engineers are in the hip pocket of the maneuver force, busting holes and doing hasty builds. If the commander needs a runway that can be put down in a matter of hours but torn up shortly after in a Hot Zone, you’re not tasking your SeaBees. If you need a stable runway that needs use over a longer course of time, that’s a SeaBee project. He hinted at it, but does he understand it? It’s in understanding the brings the proper analysis.
He is completely correct on his theory of the LCT and his comparison to building the A10. To build it Infantry centric does seem to conflict with if you say the best weapon to kill said ship is the missle system. This isa very Army, Navy, Air Force, solution to a problem. But as corny as it sounds, the Marine Corps says……
The Smartest Weapon on that battlefield is between the ears of the Squad Leader (or Tactical Commander).
This maybe a cultural philosophy that young LTJG Kim doesn’t yet fully understand.
This maybe the rebuild of the Small Unit Tactical Commander. Look at him like the A-10 and rethink the how do you rebuild out from him? Starting with the most versatile tool around him…..His small unit.
To the Marine Corps the primary weapon system is always going to be the Infantry Small Unit, but I hesitate to call it that because where it may end up is well beyond our current concept of Infantry Squad.
I want to be clear, not special operations.
But a highly trained, versatile, problem solver who doesn’t need to be told what to do. Right now we only find them in special operations. I think that is about to change.
Does the COGNITIVE OPERATOR need to be….an Operator?
Or can you take a highly intelligent:
Comm Marine, Engineer, 0861 Fires Spec, Intel Spec, EW Spec, & Mechanic….Cross-train them then send them to the new Infantry Marine Course and cut them loose?
Is that an Infantry Squad, I don’t know….But it’s scarier then any Missle System that LTJG Kim suggests we build around. That’s a lot of intelligence and ingenuity and weapons talent in one unit.
You take that unit and open all the toys and weapons systems tell them to play and figure it out.