“In an era of budgetary constraints and amidst calls for reductions in the collective aviation assets within DoD, it is important to understand that Marine air is not redundant with other services’ capabilities,” Amos said in his “2012 Report to Congress on the Posture of the U.S. Marine Corps.”

“The U.S. Air Force is not designed to operate from the sea, nor are most of its aircraft suited for operations in the types of austere environments often associated with expeditionary missions. The Navy currently does not possess sufficient capability to operate their aircraft ashore once deployed forward on carriers – and yet history has shown that our nation often needs an expeditionary aviation capability in support of both naval and land campaigns.”

It is a position Marine leadership and supporters have taken many times as the Corps has moved closer to the goal of an all-STOVL (short takeoff/vertical landing) force. And it has won nearly every battle to retain and modernize its air fleet.

More than any other weapons systems or platforms, Marine fixed-wing aviation traditionally has involved aircraft almost exclusive to the Corps, from the Harrier jump jet to the Osprey tilt-rotor to the STOVL F-35B, each of which has faced frequent threats of cancellation or curtailment.

With the F-35B intended to replace the Harrier, the Marines’ more traditional F/A-18 fighters and the EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare platform, it was saved, in part, by the commandant’s agreement to switch some planned STOVL purchases to the Navy’s F-35C carrier variant.

The new KC-130J Super Hercules will replace all other C-130 models in the Marine Corps fleet, as the Osprey is doing with the CH-46 Sea Knight and remaining CH-53D Sea Stallions (most already replaced by the CH-53E Super Stallion). In addition to the Super Stallion, the Corps’ rotor-wing modernization includes the UH-1Y Venom and AH-1Z Viper.

A newer, but fast-growing, segment of Marine aviation is its commitment to UAVs.

Those programs are part of the Marine Aviation Plan’s “phased multi-year approach to modernization,” which Amos said encompasses aircraft transitions, readiness, inventory shortfalls, manpower challenges, safety, and fiscal requirements. Given the long operational lives of military aircraft, those platforms are expected to carry the Marines well beyond 2030.

 

Protection From Unconventional Weapons

One of the first lessons learned from Southwest Asia was a greater need to protect warfighters from IEDs and other insurgent modes of attack, while also preparing for possible future encounters with chemical/biological/radiological/nuclear (CBRN) threats. How that is done differs from other service approaches because of Marine requirements to move quickly on and off ships, in and out of smaller and lighter transport vehicles, and move small units quickly and safely across a battlefield without overloading individual warfighters or restricting their ability to move and react.

“The Corps wants to shed weight from the past 10 years, get back on ship and back to what we used to do,” said Lt. Col. Mike Cancellier, director of the Force Protection Integration Division (FPID) of the Marine Capabilities Development Directorate, but added that also means increased protection against “unconventional” attacks, including weapons of mass destruction. “The Corps needs to maintain a level of training and development because IEDs are here to stay and we need to be prepared for the worst-case scenario in terms of chem/bio.”

According to Chief Warrant Officer 3 John Stinnett, capabilities integration officer in FPID’s CBRN branch, required improvements to the FPID portfolio include better stand-off protection from both chemical and biological agents, improvements to personal protective equipment – lighter, with reduced heat retention – and an increased ability to detect contamination on personnel and equipment, accompanied by better decontaminants and decontamination.

“In the next 10 years or so, I expect to see individual bio-detection pushed down to the squad level, using the man-portable Joint Biological Tactical Detection System. In 20 years, we should see fabrics that can be sprayed with a coating that absorbs and decontaminates. A lot of investigative work also is being done on foot sensors, as well as UAVs and UGVs to get past the limitations of optics to find chem/bio agents at a distance.”

Researchers also are looking at multiuse sensors that could detect not only CBRN threats, but explosive hazards, from IEDs to mines, as well.

“Today’s technology allows us to have a fairly manageable gas monochromator/spectrometer, but they are working on a micro sensor. So instead of a 1-pound battery and 20-pound detector, in 15 years or so, we will have something the size of a postage stamp that runs off a hearing aid battery,” Chief Warrant Officer 3 Jason Perry, FPID’s EOD capabilities integration officer, added.

“Will the average camo have those qualities in the future? That’s the goal,” Cancellier said. “But there’s a lot of technology involved in combining those capabilities, so to get there in 10 years or any specific time frame would be pure speculation at this point.”

 

Communications, Networks, and Bandwidth

Another lesson-learned informing future development is the need to communicate throughout the chain of command, from headquarters to individual warfighters. According to Capt. John Pico, the Command & Control Integration Division (C2ID) capabilities integration officer for tactical radios, OEF/OIF began with a shortage of squad radios – which quickly grew to a need for every warfighter to have one – and an IED-driven requirement for radios in every vehicle.

Increased data capacity also allowed greater distribution of real-time intelligence to all levels, but the rapidly growing amount of data available from more and more intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets quickly overwhelmed those systems. The next two decades are expected to see that requirement expand exponentially, with more new data being created every few weeks than had been created in all human history before 9/11.