The Strategic Shift by the Marines in the Pacific: The Logistics Challenges
09/24/2021
By Robbin Laird
The distributed laydown which started in 2014 has now been re-calibrated to focus on Marines operating further forward in the Pacific and doing so with closer joint force integration while retaining the capabilities to contribute significantly to full spectrum crisis management with allies and partners. To do this with the force structure and budgetary limits facing the Marines will be challenging.
Underlying the strategic shift is the effort to find ways to shape sustainment capabilities. Obviously, the sustainment system used for the past 20 years in the land wars has little or no relevance to providing for sustainment for a both distributed force in a maritime environment, as well as one that may need to aggregate from multiple locations.
As one Marine put it during my visit to MARFORPAC: “We need to have the ability to close forces at the decisive point. We are operating as an expeditionary force, which means we have to agilely deploy and rapidly close. We need to combine speed with expeditionary flexibility and reach.”
https://sldinfo.com/2021/09/the-strategic-shift-by-the-marines-in-the-pacific-the-logistics-challenges/
