Page 95 - Maritime Services and the Kill Web

The Maritime Services, the Allies and Shaping the Kill Web

The Role of Unmanned Aerial Systems in the Remaking of the Amphibious
Task Force: The Perspective of Lt. General (Retired) Trautman
2017-05-17 By Robbin Laird

President Trump has come to power at a time when a very flexible force able to insert from the sea and
rapidly return to the sea has emerged.

This USN-USMC capability has migrated beyond the classic Amphibious Ready Group-Marine Expeditionary
Unit (ARG-MEU) into a very flexible and lethal amphibious task force.

The evolving Marine Corps aviation assets, coupled with the reshaping of Marine Corps concepts of
operations for conducting force insertion from the sea, are shaping a new capability and within that
capability unmanned aerial assets are playing a key role.

One of the key architects of the Marine aviation revolution has been Lt. General (Retired) Trautman.

During his tenure as Deputy Commandant for Aviation, the Osprey began its first deployments to the Middle
East, the H-1 Venom and Viper were introduced to the Fleet and the F-35B was coming to its initial fruition.

With the continued development of the CH-53E into the K and the addition of unmanned aviation, the mix of
flying assets that would work with the Ground Combat Element to shape new MEU capabilities was put into
motion.
I had a chance recently to talk with Lt. General (Retired) Trautman about the unmanned element and its role in
the evolving way ahead for Marine Corps transformation.

Question: The UAVs going on ships now really had their origin in the land wars.

How did the process get started?

Lt. General (Retired) Trautman: It goes back to the time General Jim Conway was in Iraq with the 1st Marine
Expeditionary Force and he found a little company that was making the Scan Eagle UAV.

Believe it or not, the Scan Eagle was being used for the Albacore fishing fleets up in the Pacific Northwest at
the time.

In other words, Scan Eagle has a shipboard legacy already built right into it.

But, the Marines evolved the Scan Eagle principally as an asset for land based operations in Afghanistan and
Iraq.

And, in recent years with the focus placed on returning to the sea it became obvious that a similar capability
on board our amphibious task force would be quite useful.

That is what led us to make the selection of the RQ-21 Blackjack which is now deploying on our Marine
Expeditionary Units and by all accounts it is doing quite well so far.

Question: It is very challenging to operate unmanned air systems onboard ships and could you discuss
those challenges?

Lt. General (Retired) Trautman: Many people who have not spent a lot of time at sea really don’t grasp the
inherent challenges that you have when you launch and recover from a sea base.

Page 94