As the Marine Corps adjusts to operating with fewer Marines afloat on amphibious ships, the service is better defining the role of its new Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis Response and is considering adding a few more across Africa and the Middle East to boost forward presence without straining Navy resources.
Col. Scott Benedict, who commanded the new SPMAGTF-CR from its formation in March 2013 through the end of January, said the 550-man unit cannot fully replace a Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) onboard an Amphibious Ready Group (ARG), but it does fill a critical need for combatant commanders.
With tankers and Ospreys, the Spain-based unit is able--without amphibious warfare ships--to deploy across North Africa and even to South Sudan if needed.
(Hey, Marines based on land? Consider carrier air wings doing that, too, I say.)
Maybe we could put such a force (And give it a new name, for God's sake. SPMAGTF-CR doesn't exactly roll of the tongue. Marine Expeditionary Response Team?) on a modularized auxiliary cruiser adapted for small aerial Marine operations? Then it could sail to the west coast of Africa for response options in that area, too.
Perhaps only a company team based around a reinforced Marine platoon is located on the modularized auxiliary amphibious ship (MAAS), with the rest remaining in Spain.
The remainder could react to crises in the Mediterranean region or fly to the MAAS to reinforce a west/southern Africa crisis response.
So there you go, a MERT/MAAS budget solution (I could so work for the Pentagon) to keeping the pointy end of the spear near potential problems.
