“The challenge is to maintain inventory as our budgets decrease,” Pico said. “As we go through those cuts, we have to look at what’s the right TOE [Table of Organization and Equipment] for each unit – one-for-one or issue at the higher echelons and let them plus-up a unit as required by each mission. Trying to strike the right balance is one of our biggest problems.
A Marine carrying a Thor II backpack-mounted counter-IED jammer provides security for key International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) coordinators and plans developers during a site visit to Zaranj, Nimoroz province, Afghanistan. Manpack IED jammers like the Thor II indicate the need to protect individual Marines from unconventional attacks. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Timothy Solano
“MOUT [Military Operations in Urban Terrain] requires a lot more radios down to the individual level, while rural fights have a greater emphasis on power and range. So reducing the weight of batteries and radios, with longer patrols and less time between resupply, is a goal. Having enough batteries for every radio for multi-day patrols can weigh down the Marines pretty quickly.”
Meanwhile, user requirements from Southwest Asia have helped shape the battlespace network, especially as it has moved toward a complete “everything over IP” standard and away from traditional time multiplexing.
Master Sgt. Thomas Rabak, C2ID capabilities integration officer for the network cell, said even as Marines look to smaller, more capable and feature-rich radios in the future, they also must deal with bandwidth, “which has increased in leaps and bounds the past 10 years.” As lower echelon radios have added data to voice, the bandwidth demand for LOS [line-of-sight] communications has been kept in check, but other advances are keeping it a top concern.
“We used to use multiplexers to combine NIPR/SIPR [non-secure and secure radio transmissions]; now we use tunneling and encryption, which puts more strain on the network,” he explained. “We’re dealing with that by looking to industry for newer solutions that allow more throughput and refining our CONOPS to get the best out to the warfighter.
Cpl. Daniel Blesi pauses to radio in coordinates outside Patrol Base Shark, Helmand province, Afghanistan, April 27, 2011. Blesi, squad leader with Company L, 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, led his Marines through wheat fields as they patrolled the area of operations. Operations over the past decade drove requirements for more radios and more bandwidth. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Marco Mancha
“There is a new system coming out called Networking-on-the-Move – NOTM – that is allowing the network to be mobile. Obviously not as robust as a static net, but it allows users access to three different enclaves of service, getting their signal from SATCOM or LOS. So Expeditionary Ship-to-Shore is definitely shaping new networks into the future.”
As to Corps 2030, Pico sees getting there as a combination and prioritization of needs and capabilities.
“It’s a constant challenge of balancing modernization, identifying capability gaps in the future, and working with technology that changes very quickly,” he said. “I think the key is to maintain a stable modernization effort across a wide portfolio.”
Infantry Weapons
Identifying the right weapons for 21st century Marines – who face everything from IEDs to cyberwar in locales from high mountains to low deserts – may be one of the most difficult paths to Corps 2030.
Charles Clark III, infantry weapons capabilities integration officer in the Office of the Deputy Commandant-Combat Development & Integration, noted the small size and broad mission set of the Corps – from non-combatant evacuation operations to major combat – make it impossible to tailor weapons, optics, ammunition, or other enablers to specific theaters. Instead, every effort is made to maintain a diverse capability to accomplish whatever mission is assigned.
Most of the near-term changes have been in response to “urgent need” requests from commanders in the field. That includes completing, by 2013, fielding of the M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle (IAR), a lightweight, magazine-fed 5.56 mm weapon that “puts a true automatic rifle in the hands of the rifle squad,” Clark said. “That will essentially return the M249 to its primary role as a light machine gun, retaining six per rifle company as a commander’s discretion weapon.