Page 52 - Maritime Services and the Kill Web

The Maritime Services, the Allies and Shaping the Kill Web

Recently Todd Miller of the Second Line of Defense joined the 15 th MEU for one of their mission work-ups,
specifically “Realistic Urban Training” (RUT). Part II of this series will focus entirely on the RUT.

Covert missions by U.S. Navy SEALs or U.S. Army Delta Force receive significant publicity.

Just the mention of “SEAL Team Six” rings the bell of high respect.

However, there is a US military force of exceptional substance and capability deployed at the forefront of
global flashpoints that gets little notoriety.

At any given moment 2 Marine Expeditionary Units (MEUs) numbering around 2200 personnel are mobile and
forward deployed around the globe as a crisis response force. The U.S. Navy provides the transportation via
the Amphibious Ready Group (ARG).

Though the MEU is the smallest Marine Air Ground Task Force (MAGTF), the units include lethal ground
combat, aviation, logistics and command elements.
Second Line of Defense was invited to witness the 15th MEUs (one of 7 MEUs) live fire RUT exercise at Marine
Corps Air Ground Combat Center (MCAGCC), Twentynine Palms, CA. Supported by artillery and helicopter
assets, the assault force of 100+ Infantryman packed a tremendous punch.

Historically, MEUs realize prominence when responding to humanitarian disasters (such as the Tsunami in the
Indian Ocean in 2004) as a force that evacuates Americans from a country that descends into chaos, or
perhaps as part of a broader, multi service combat campaign.

That may all be about to change.

In the Pacific, the North Korean ballistic missile threat and China’s militarization of the South China Sea may
lead to a crisis that calls upon the broad capability of the forward deployed MEU. On the other side of the
globe the Iranian situation, Syria, the war on terror (a global issue) all present the strong possibility of a
“MEU mobilizing crisis.”

Given the Secretary of Defense, James Mattis formerly served in the Marines, he is well acquainted with the
capability the MEU/ARG brings to any region.
The capability of the MEU/ARG, combined with its proximity to areas of crisis, position it as the force of
choice to initiate, support and or achieve directed objectives.

The combined MEU/ARG is fully capable of a wide variety of missions including (but not limited to);

• Amphibious assault
• Amphibious raid
• Maritime interception Operations (MIO)/Visit, board, search, and seizure (VBSS)
• Advance force operations
• Noncombatant Evacuation Operations (NEO)
• Humanitarian assistance (HA)
• Stability operations
• Tactical Recovery of Aircraft and Personnel (TRAP)
• Joint and combined operations
• Aviation operations from expeditionary shore-based sites
• Theater security cooperation activities
• Airfield/port seizure

Second Line of Defense

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