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adaptive campaigning with a maritime expeditionary force 125 The US Navy and US Marine Corps Team If the Australian Army is to go to sea, it will require both a significant cultural change and the development of a whole new mind-set. Perhaps the best place to start is to look at the world’s best practitioner of expeditionary operations - the US Navy and the US Marine Corps expeditionary team. 27 The ADF has worked closely with the US Navy and US Marine Corps over many years and participation in amphibious exercises like TANDEM THRUST have assisted the ADF to develop credible amphibious forces. 28 The ADF maintains a watching-brief on US Navy and US Marine Corps concepts, so for example the consideration of ‘Distributed Manoeuvre’ as a concept for offensive tactics by the Australian Army relies heavily upon the original US Marine Corps approach to manoeuvre. 29 Despite some success at the working levels (mostly tactical and grand tactical), it is at the higher operational and strategic levels that the ADF has yet to take onboard the full implications of the US expeditionary suite of concepts. The US approach to Expeditionary Operations (USMC)
126 australian maritime issues 2009: spc-a annual The US approach to expeditionary operations is based upon task forces (consisting of US Navy and US Marine Corps elements) capable of attaining sea control and undertaking maritime power projection. 30 Sea control forces include elements providing a protective bubble around the expeditionary units, using their anti-air warfare, anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare and mine countermeasure capabilities to safeguard their marine team-members while at sea. In addition sea control forces provide strike capabilities (air, missile and naval surface fire) in support of expeditionary units ashore. The US uses a combined Navy and Marine Corps task force which typically consists of two components: a Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) (MEU(SOC)), and an Amphibious Ready Group (ARG). The ADF moved part of the way towards the US model when it adopted the ARG model for its amphibious doctrine. 31 Today the ADF typically operates its Kanimbla class amphibious ships and heavy landing ship as constituents of an ARG, with the Australian Army providing units for small craft operations as well as to control embarkation and disembarkation - known as a Ship’s Army Detachment (SAD). However the SAD falls far short of the Australian Army strategic requirement for expeditionary operations. Examination of the following organisational diagrams shows that the Australian Army does not have any comparable organisation to the MEU(SOC), neither is the Army component within the ARG anything like that required for strategically flexible operations that are routinely undertaken by a maritime expeditionary force. Much work also has to be done by the Australian Navy to meet the equivalent ARG requirements. Despite many Australian historical examples and the modern US experience, the value to be gained from a forward deployed Australian maritime expeditionary force in coalition with our allies, using poise and presence to deter potential enemies and influence events ashore, has yet to be recognised, let alone understood, by many strategists within Australia. Figures 1 and 2 show, comparison purposes, formations of a typical United States MEU(SOC) and ARG. One of the reasons that maritime strategy and expeditionary warfare is not well understood within the ADF is due to the disproportionate effort attached to the tactical level of command at the expense of operational and strategic command. Although this is a relatively common problem within the ADF as a whole, some within Army have yet to grasp the strategic realities of Australia’s role as a medium power in a part of the world that is dominated by the maritime environment. The ADF needs to use the sea to its advantage; it needs to overcome potential crises before they degenerate into war. The US Marine Corps expeditionary concepts are useful constructs for the ADF, although they will need to be modified to better reflect the way the nation wishes to project power abroad, noting that Australia is a medium power not a super power. That does not detract from the usefulness of the US concepts as they stand today.
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