When I met with LtGen Heckl earlier this year, we discussed the way ahead for the USMC in operating a distributed force, and he underscored it all starts with logistics.
“The pacing factor for everything we are doing in shaping the distributed force is logistics and to do so in a contested environment. We are focused on our ability to move ourselves organically.
“The CH-53K, the KC-130J and the Osprey can provide basic timely lift with support by surface connectors crucial as well. We need to be resilient. If one component of our ecosystem of moving and supporting a distributed force is not available or will not work with the current situation, then we need to have another component available.”
The significance have having the right kind of organic lift support defines the reach and range of what a maneuver force can do.
The featured picture certainly highlights the reality of what the CH-53 K can do. Not only is it carrying an F-35C airframe, it is doing so while being refueled.
This is what the Pax River folks said in their caption to the photo: “U.S. Marines flying a CH-53K King Stallion heavy-lift helicopter transported an F-35C Lightning II airframe from the F-35 Integrated Test Force at Patuxent River (Pax ITF) to a Navy unit located at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, April 24.
“A Marine aviator from Marine Test and Evaluation Squadron 1 (VMX-1) piloted the most powerful helicopter in the Department of Defense that carried the inoperable airframe, which was without mission and propulsion systems, outer wings, or additional equipment, to the Prototype, Manufacturing and Test (PMT) Department of the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) Lakehurst for use in future emergency recovery systems testing.”
I was clearly reminded of that when looking at the limits the Australian Army has when working to address their new core mission, namely littoral maneuver from the north of Australia out to their first island chain. They only have a Chinook with its limited range and lack of refueling capability.
Contrast that with the USMC and its CH-53K which not only can carry a wide range of capability in support of the deploying and deployed Marines but can be refueled extending their range of operation.
Your lift and support define what you can do as an insertion force: and define what a distributed force can deliver in terms of sustainable impact.
Having just returned from Australia where the government is arguing that their new strategy will deliver “impactful projection” which revolves around buying longer range strike weapons, a perceptive Aussie analyst questions the concept.
Stephen Kuper argued: “In order to avoid repeating history, it is clear that Australia and the ADF must begin to view expeditionary capability and the underlying doctrine, force structure, and platforms as a fundamental component of the nation’s new strategic paradigm.
“Only our capacity to deploy to defend and support our regional partners and in defence of our interests through “impactful presence” will ensure that Australia’s critical sea lines of communication remain unmolested in the era of great power competition.”
“Impactful presence” requires sustainable support at range for the ADF. They should consider the CH-53K as even more important than acquiring TLAMS.
