Page 98 - Maritime Services and the Kill Web

The Maritime Services, the Allies and Shaping the Kill Web

I had a chance to follow up on these thoughts with the current senior Marine involved in working the evolving
UAS issues, namely, Col. J.B. “Buss” Barranco.

Col. Barranco is an experienced Marine Corps aviator with significant combat experience. He has been an
instructor at MAWTS, and has had eight deployments. He was the escort flight leader for the Afghan
operation for the Marines in 2001, and then was involved in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and then back to Iraq
in 2005 and 2007 as well. He worked the H-1 transition task force for Lt. General Trautman when he was
DCA in 2008. He then deployed to Afghanistan again in 2010, 2011, and 2012.

When the Col. discusses platforms he does so from the standpoint of what they bring to the Marine Corps and
how they integrated into the evolving capabilities of the MEU or MAGTF.

Question: Clearly, you are looking at unmanned air systems from the standpoint of how they work to
enhance USMC capabilities.

How do you view the evolution to date?

Col. Barranco: “I think we’ve done a pretty good job of trying to fully integrate our unmanned into our
manned aviation in the aircraft wings. And we are in the process of going back to sea after a long period of
being focused on the land wars. We want to get back to sea.

“We want expeditionary.

“We want VTOL.

“Although Reaper is a tremendous capability is is limited to runways, and runways are going to be targeted
by peer competitors. And we want to be independent of the need to use allied runways as well. Sovereignty
needs to be exercised independent of absolutely needing to use allied airfields.

“These are the drawbacks of land-based systems.”

Question: How then are you looking to build that VTOL capability?

Col. Barranco: “We are looking to build airborne early warning capability, and air to air capability into
MUX, something that you don’t find in Reaper.

“We want an expeditionary, shipboard capability.
“We are building a digital interoperable network and we want the MUX to be a node in that digital network.

“We want air to ground capability but we also want air-to-air capability as well. By being able to operate
shipboard, we can free up our manned aircraft in some cases for other missions. We’d also like to have a
cargo capability to avoid having to use trucks on the road when we wish to avoid that.

“The Osprey has raised the bar with regard to range and speed.
“We need range and speed that’s comparable to the Osprey in the new UAS, the MUX. MUX will be a key
element in our execution of distributed operations.

“We will operate our forces further from the ship and the assembly area and need to operate with smaller
distributed forces that are network prior to any massing of our forces.

“The MUX will need to fit into that template.
Second Line of Defense

Page 97