Page 51 - F-35B and USMC

The Integration of the F-35B into USMC Operations

They are shaping a force capable of operating effectively in discrete but interactive and interconnected force
packages.

And they can operate in the domains of air, sea, and space and against land based targets.

This 21st Century technology dynamic makes the synergistic reach of the force much greater than the range of
any specific assets operating off of the surface of ship or operating from an airfield.

An F-35 enabled force facilitates reach not range of the entire engagement force.

It is not simply about the forces organically operating of the Ford, or the America or the Queen Elizabeth;
it is about their ability to reach into the joint or coalition honeycombed operating force.

Specifically with regard to the large deck carrier, and the USS Ford in particular, Manazir highlighted the
synergy between the evolution of the air wing and of the evolution of capabilities built into the ship. He
described a shift from thinking about the carrier as the deck which can fly X number of aircraft to thinking of
the carrier as a moving epicenter of an extended strike enterprise, that can work with the USAF and coalition
partners and live off of their combat capabilities in the expanded battlespace.

“The focus is upon the carrier as a moving epicenter for a netted capability with the joint and coalition force.

It is not about counting the number of airplanes on the deck or projecting the future existence of paper
airplanes.

It is about the air wing we are building and how it will operate with the transformed joint and coalition forces
we are collectively modernizing.

The approach is to have force structure flexibility with an interconnected extended battlespace.

You can operate as a separate force package; or as a federated force when you are connected but can
plug and unplug; you can be interoperable, integrated or interdependent; depending on time,
circumstances and mission.

What the Ford class, the Joint Strike Fighter and future unmanned platforms bring is the ability to pull the
information in and be an epicenter of an enlarged and extended reach for the joint and coalition force.”

In short, the decade ahead is not a repeat of the past 15 years; it is not about a continuation of the land-
centric and counter-insurgency (COIN) slow motion way to fight a war.

It is about the American military standing in parity partnership with allies to demonstrate global agility.

The technology and training ranges exist to develop the con-ops to insert force to achieve discrete and
defined objectives, to maneuver in the extended battlespace, to work with allies and joint forces to credibly
prevail across the full range of military conflict in any part of the globe.

For the power projection forces –USN/ USMC, USAF with appropriate elements of the US Army, especially
Air Defense Artillery – it is about the capability to work across an extended battlespace with flexible means
which can be linked together as necessary to prevail in the military and strategic conditions facing the US and
its allies in the period ahead.

The capability to go after fleeting targets is enhanced as the sea services shift towards a fifth generation
warfare enabled force.

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