II. Shape - Respond - Prepare:
Ensuring Operational Primacy

The presence of credible naval forces in critical world regions is both a key means of furthering U.S. interests and essential to the ability of the U.S. to deal with crises. In recent years, the demand for U.S. forces has been increasingly high, yet limited manpower and other constrained resources have challenged the Department of the Navy’s ability to satisfy all requirements without over-burdening our people and wearing out our ships and aircraft.

We expect this situation to continue well into the next century. Thus, the peacetime challenge to the Department of Navy is to prioritize its operational activities to ensure that our efforts concentrate where they will do the most good without sacrificing crisis-response and warfighting capabilities. These priorities vary by region and situation according to the national security interests engaged.

The National Security Strategy identifies engagement as the best means of furthering security interests worldwide. Engagement occurs at many levels, but its most visible element is the U.S. Armed Forces whose mission is to encourage peace, promote stability, and, when necessary, defeat adversaries. It is not enough to be supremely competent in waging war; our Armed Forces must be equally capable of maintaining the peace.

The three fundamental elements of U.S. National Military Strategy are to shape the international environment, to respond to the full range of crises, and to prepare for an uncertain future. America’s naval forces execute this strategy by deploying ships and aircraft around the globe. The closing of many foreign bases makes self-contained and self-sustained naval forces the most recognizable component of U.S. forward presence, demonstrating our nation’s commitment to a peaceful and more prosperous future. A forward presence — one that visibly reassures allies and deters adversaries — must be sustained and enhanced, since the alternatives of isolationism and passivity historically proved far more costly. When crisis and conflict erupt, we must be there with the ability to effectively respond.

Shaping the International Environment

Forward presence remains the cornerstone of the nation’s strategic shaping effort. Forward deployed naval forces are tailor-made for promoting regional stability and deterring aggression by operating in forward stations with credible power and the means to deliver it. In addition, forward deployed naval forces are likely to be much more cost- effective alternatives to surging forces from the continental United States. For example, a Joint Task Force established in 1997 to conduct a full non-combatant evacuation from Zaire cost $236 million. A similarly sized MAGTF would have cost just over three million dollars to accomplish the same mission.

The Sea Services’ most important shaping element is their forward deployed posture. Through exercises and port visits, the Navy and Marine Corps strengthen U.S. ties with allies and work toward establishing new relationships and partnerships that will foster regional stability and enhance the world economy. U.S. naval forces also train and exercise with countries that have limited infrastructure and a minimal ability to support large-scale military deployments. These exercises offer other nations unique opportunities to develop a relationship with U.S. forces. Forward deployed naval forces also provide theater commanders with flexible, responsive task organizations that can be positioned in trouble spots for extended periods as a visible demonstration of U.S. resolve and commitment. Highly mobile, combat-ready naval forces are not as burdened by political constraints that often delay or disrupt the deployment of ground-based military forces. This flexibility is invaluable to the nation, as it allows the National Command Authorities — the President and his national security and military decision-makers — to act when necessary.

Summary of Naval Exercises

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The Navy and Marine Corps team significantly enhanced interoperability with allies and forged new relationships with other nations in 1998. From Cape Horn to the Sea of Japan, the Navy-Marine Corps team directly supported the U.S. international shaping strategy by engaging allies and friends and extending the hand of friendship around the world — while demonstrating the awesome capabilities of the Navy and Marine Corps. Live-fire exercises with surface combat-ants, submarines, and aircraft, as well as extensive amphibious operations, mine warfare and sophisticated special operations, enable the Navy-Marine Corps team to train with our allies the way future coalitions will fight.

Responding to the Nation’s Tasking

On average, the Navy-Marine Corps team responded to national tasking once every three weeks in 1998. This is a five-fold increase from that experienced during the Cold War. They were called upon to demonstrate multipurpose capabilities in wide-ranging assignments: deep strike missions against Iraq, evacuations from Eritrea, humanitarian assistance in Indonesia, disaster relief in New Guinea and Central America, and maritime interception operations (MIO) in the Arabian Gulf. Repeatedly, forward deployed naval forces were ready to answer the nation’s call — sometimes alone, sometimes in concert with the other Services and those of our allies and friends.

Summary of Naval Operations

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U.S. naval operations in 1998 stretched across the globe and demonstrated fully the multi-mission capabilities of a full-spectrum maritime force. The volatile Southwest Asia region demanded vigilance, flexibility, and ready firepower as our naval forces shouldered the brunt of continuing operations focused on Iraq, implementing United Nations policy against a state that remains defiant in the face of international sanctions. Navy and Marine Corps aircraft and Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from Navy combatants were essential instruments of national resolve in response to continued Iraqi violations of United Nations sanctions during Operation Desert Fox.

In the embattled Balkan region, naval forces continued to execute operations designed to uphold the fragile peace. Navy cruise missile strikes were launched against terrorist targets in the Sudan and Afghanistan in response to the bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

In a continuing effort to disrupt the flow of illegal drugs into the United States, the Navy deployed active and reserve forces to the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific. Working with Coast Guard and civilian law-enforcement agencies, Navy ships, submarines, and aircraft contributed to several large drug seizures. Furthermore, Sailors and Marines served with law enforcement and military forces in drug-source countries as tactical planners, analysts, and members of mobile training teams. In all, Navy assets logged more than 18,000 flight hours and some 2,300 ship steaming days in support of drug interdiction operations.

Sailors and Marines came to the aid of victims of natural disasters in both Kenya and Italy, assisting in those countries after severe rain and mudslides ravaged several areas. Closer to home, Navy and Marine Reservists coordinated disaster relief efforts for Hurricane Georges in Puerto Rico and Hurricane Mitch in Central America. In addition, the Navy-Marine Corps team answered the call for assistance after wild fires in Florida, severe floods in Georgia, and devastating tornadoes in Pennsylvania left thousands of American citizens in distress.

Preparing Now for an Uncertain Future:
Instituting a Transformation

The emerging security environment presents a diverse set of challenges and threats to U.S. interests. Naval forces must be prepared to confront threats to the nation, U.S. citizens, and America’s worldwide interests. These challenges demand an integrated approach to security issues, involving close cooperation among military, other government, non-government, and international organizations.

Similarly, the military needs to use technology and improve its tactics and business practices to become more efficient and effective. Naval forces of the future may look decidedly different from those of today, and a period of transformation has already begun. Rapid advances in technology require the Navy-Marine Corps team to institute a continuous review of force structure, operational concepts, and acquisition and maintenance of its forces and systems.

The Department of the Navy is establishing a comprehensive process to innovatively improve its ability to execute both traditional and non-traditional missions. The Navy and Marine Corps staffs, Naval War College, Strategic Studies Group, and the Marine Corps University are conceiving forward-looking concepts on how our naval forces can meet tomorrow’s challenges. The newly created Navy Warfare Development Command and the Marine Corps Combat Development Command further develop future warfare doctrine and concepts. A series of Navy Fleet Battle Experiments (FBEs) and Marine Corps Advanced Warfighting Experiments (AWEs) are used to test new doctrine, gain insights into the utility of new technologies, explore new operational capabilities, and test ideas for future application.

The first forward area FBE, FBE Delta, was conducted in conjunction with Foal Eagle ’98, a joint and combined theater exercise. Its experiments included the most futuristic test yet of theater combined-arms coordination. Using E-2C Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft, nuclear submarines, surface combatants, Special Operations Forces (SOF), and Air Force F-16 fighters, these experiments addressed specific theater concerns including counter-SOF, counter-fire, and Joint Theater Air and Missile Defense.

FBE Echo, scheduled for March-April 1999, will be coordinated with the the Marine Corps’ AWE Urban Warrior. This experiment will further explore naval operations in the urban environment, including naval fires (i.e., the emerging concept of netted sensors and strike/land-attack weapons, which was previously known simply as “strike operations”), command and control, and theater air defense. FBE Echo will also examine of new concepts for undersea warfare to more fully deal with asymmetric maritime threats.

Concept-based experimentation is the means to fuse new technologies with novel operational concepts to satisfy future warfighting requirements. The Navy Warfare Development Command’s Maritime Battle Center (MBC) and Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL) have cognizance over the range of naval innovation — to include tactical, operational, and organizational concepts as well as technical innovations. The laboratories’ primary purposes are to develop concepts, tactics, techniques, and procedures for the application of advanced technologies that will result in a Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) for U.S. naval forces. The RMA promises a dramatic change in the fundamental nature of war through a combination of technological advances and operational, organizational, and institutional changes.

The Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory’s primary responsibility is to investigate concepts, tactics, and technologies, and to coordinate results with other organizations. To carry out this process, the MCWL has developed the Five Year Experimentation Plan (FYEP). This three-phase plan is the cornerstone document for concept-based experimentation and the introduction of science and technology into the Marine Corps’ operating forces. Each phase comprises limited-objective experiments and culminates in an AWE. The first phase, called Hunter Warrior, was completed in March 1997 and examined the contribution that a highly capable MAGTF could make if provided with selected conceptual and technological improvements.

Now in its second phase, Urban Warrior is projecting lessons learned from Hunter Warrior — with additional capabilities addressing tactics, techniques, and procedures required in a primarily urban littoral battlespace. Urban Warrior’s charter is to enhance the ability of naval forces to execute simultaneous, non-contiguous operations throughout the littoral region. It will address operations in a coastal urban setting and the surrounding battlespace, including sea-basing of its support infrastructure, and defense against WMD attack.

The final Urban Warrior capstone exercise will be executed by the First Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF) in Kernal Blitz ‘99 in conjunction with Third Fleet’s FBE Echo. Preparations for the third phase, Capable Warrior, begin in early 1999 to examine whether a sea-based Marine Expeditionary Force can conduct maneuver throughout an extended littoral battlespace by employing sea-based command and control, naval fires, and logistics.

As AWEs and FBEs explore new warfighting concepts, Advanced Concept Technology Demonstrations (ACTDs) explore the military utility of new and emerging technologies. ACTDs give naval forces the opportunity to experiment with new technical capabilities very early in the acquisition process and are an effective means of rapidly fielding new capabilities at a reduced cost. Preference is given to joint programs and is designed to involve the warfighter throughout the process. ACTDs can provide insights into the development of doctrine and training, and can be used to drive the acquisition process. For example, the Navy and Marine Corps are heavily involved in the Extending the Littoral Battlespace (ELB) ACTD. As part of Kernal Blitz ‘99 and Urban Warrior, ELB ACTD intends to establish a near-seamless C4ISR network that fully supports over-the-horizon, sea-based force projection, distributed firepower, and maneuver warfare.

Total Force Operations: Navy & Marine Corps
Reserve Integration

The augmentation by Reserve forces is a combat multiplier that provides active duty forces with depth and flexibility. Cost-effective Reserve forces have become an increasingly crucial component of the crisis-response and warfighting capabilities of the Naval Service.

The Naval Reserve plays a significant role in virtually all major operations and exercises. Last year, for example, Naval Reserve Force ships deployed to the Western Pacific for CARAT-98, to South America for Unitas, and to the Caribbean for several counterdrug deployments. The 1998 exercise Ulchi Focus Lens included more than 600 Reservists, which is double the number deployed just five years ago. Naval Reserve aircraft units also contribute to the military effort in Incirlik, Turkey, while supporting United Nations’ sanctions against Iraq, and are integral to all major fleet operations. A Marine Corps security team was the first reinforcement force to arrive in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, after the embassy bombing in 1998, and was flown to the scene on board Naval Reserve aircraft.

The Naval Reserve maintains its traditional capability for wartime mobilization, especially since its people are integral to war-plan staffing. Recent emphasis on peacetime support for the fleet, however, further enhances the overall mobilization readiness of the Naval Reserve. It also helps the feet by providing Personnel Tempo (Perstempo) relief in important skill areas. To this end, Naval Reserve support to the fleet increased to more than two million workdays last year.

During 1998, rotations of 10 Reserve Civil Affairs Marines were continuously deployed to Bosnia for Operation Joint Guard. Forty-one Reservists were activated to support Marine Forces Pacific and I MEF in response to increased tensions over Iraq. Some 2,000 Reserve Sailors and Marines augmented II MEF for Exercise Strong Resolve in Norway. Navy and Marine Reservists also served alongside their active duty counterparts in numerous other operations, exercises, and counterdrug missions in 1998.

The Naval Reserve has embraced a Revolution in Business Affairs increasing its flexibility for emerging missions. One example is the flexible drilling program, where Reserve personnel are no longer tied to traditional monthly drill’s weekends. Instead, they combine their drilling periods into longer-term packages that better address fleet support needs and Reserve training. Reservists in places like Minneapolis and Denver are now electronically networked in order to complete time-critical work and enhance their integration with active counterparts. Electronic connectivity was extended to Naval Reserve units that serve national intelligence centers as well. Additionally, a web-based information exchange system provides better fleet access to the civilian skills of the Naval Reserve.

The Marine Corps Reserve forces mirror their active duty counterparts and are structured to augment and reinforce the active component as integrated units. Coupled with the individual skills resident in the Reserve, this facilitates the ability of the Reserve to support total force missions across the spectrum of engagement and conflict — from peacekeeping and smaller-scale contingencies to major theater war.

Today more than 98% of Marine Corps Reserve units are assigned to active duty forces in support of the Marine Corps’ commitment to joint operations plans. A seamless integration of reserve elements and active duty personnel is essential due to an increasing demand for military forces and a smaller overall force structure. The Marine Corps Reserve contributes approximately one-fourth of the force structure and one-third of the trained manpower of the Marine Corps. Specifically, Marine Reservists comprise all of the adversary squadrons and civil affairs groups, one-half of the tank battalions, one-third of the artillery battalions, and one-fourth of the reconnaissance battalions. Reserve contribution will be reviewed during a total force structure review in 1999.

Retention challenges in the Marine Corps Reserve are being addressed through the Reserve Recruiting and Retention Task Force. Two important programs sponsored by the task force are Operation Harvest and the Reserve Career Management Team (CMT). Operation Harvest matches Marines separating from active duty with reserve units, while the CMT provides for reserve career management similar to the monitoring of active component Marine careers. When fully functional in FY 99, CMT will provide an equitable reserve career management and professional development program to assist Reservists in achieving a fulfilling reserve career.

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