Bold Alligator 2012 was significantly more than an amphibious exercise. And in a real sense, it was not. It was a littoral force engagement exercise leveraging the sea base to operate over a very large battlespace. And it was an exercise that picked up lessons learned from NATO’s ope-ration in Libya last year and carried them forward.
When compared with the U.S. Navy’s last major amphibious exercise — “Operation Purple Star,” conducted in 1996 — one of the clear differences was the impact of the Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft. The Osprey’s speed and range, demonstrated in the Libyan operation and in Bold Alligator, provided glimpses of the future.
Bold Alligator took place from Jan. 30 to Feb. 12 along the Atlantic Coast of the United States. The exercise demonstrated that the sea base can be linked ship to ship, from ship to shore, from shore to ship and back again.
During the exercise, the Osprey landed on the USNS Robert E. Peary, a T-AKE ship, and participated in a simulated raid 185 miles away on Fort Pickett, Va.
As the chief coalition officer involved in Bold Alligator 2012, Navy Lt. Cmdr. George Pastoor argued, “This really is about power projection from the sea and the ability to move the insertion force from and to the sea base and to operate throughout the battlespace.”
The promise of the expeditionary strike group (ESG) enabled by the Osprey and the coming F-35B, the vertical-takeoff version of the Joint Strike Fighter, is really rather simple. The ESG enabled by the Osprey and the F-35B is neither a carrier battle group (CBG) nor an amphibious ready group (ARG).
It is far more flexible than a CBG in that it is a modular mix-and-match capability, which can include allies as it did in the exercise, or in Libyan operations.
And it is not simply an “ARG on steroids,” as one of the Harrier squadron commanders noted. “It is far more capable.”
An ESG will allow for an economy of force whereby the ARG-U.S. Marine Corps Expeditionary Unit can be scaled up to include other sea-based or air assets to dominate the battlespace. It is scalable, both in terms of assets contained within the sea base or contributed by various land support structures, air or ground.
According to the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force commander in the exercise, Brig. Gen. Christopher Owens, who will soon be moving to Okinawa, by strengthening the ability of the sea base to provide for logistics ashore, one can insert force without moving an iron mountain with it ashore.
And “we get away from that image of amphibious assault where we’re going into a limited area, and that you have limited places you can land, so the enemy knows you’re coming to one of these two places. The goal of the ESG is to hit them where they’re not.”
The distributed character of the sea base seen in this exercise and highlighted by the evolving ESG allows for a modular mix-and-match quality that can embody the key elements of what one wants in 21st-century forces: presence, economy of force and scalability.
The F-35B will become a key enabler for an ESG and provide a significant opportunity to redefine and rescope the role of the large deck carrier.
As the commanding general of 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, Gen. Jon “Dog” Davis, who rode on the F-35 testbed during the exercise, has argued, “The F-35 community of users — sea based and land based — will be able to create a pretty tight air grid over the top of the distributed battlespace so we can share information very freely out there. The key is to have these airplanes networked over top, where they’re able to see deep into the enemy battlespace, or the objective area, but also sharing that information.”
And as Col. Kevin Iiams, Davis’ deputy at 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing and a fellow rider on the F-35 combat systems test bed, added, “We’re right-sizing our assault so that we put the right force in the right place, at the right time against the right enemy and objective, while minimizing overall footprint/exposure ashore.”
As for the strategic relevance of the newly reconfigured ESG, it is not hard to look at current events to find its central role. The evolving Middle East is rapidly creating the need for such a capability, and such a transformation of U.S. and allied forces. And remember the core role that allies played in Bold Alligator.
With the Arab Spring, the security and defense framework the West has underwritten over the past 30 years is shattered. The Arab Spring states are in upheaval, the Iranians are preparing to emerge as a nuclear power, the conservative Arab states have to prepare to defend themselves against Iran, and the interaction between Arab Spring forces and the stability of the key conservative Arab states is significant.
Who will the West be aiding and abetting if the Arab Spring continues to pull the rug out from under the de facto conservative Arab, Israeli and Western alliance? Will Western states be able and willing to deploy land-based forces, whether ground or air, on Arab soil? And given uncertainties even in key Arab allied states, how might the West best defend its interests and ensure energy security in the region?
There are several elements presaged in Bold Alligator that are relevant to the reshaping of Western capabilities to protect Western interests. One of these was suggested by the role of Harrier jump jets in the exercise. Harriers based on the USS Kearsarge worked closely with land-based air assets to provide a significant air combat capability to shape the battlespace.
This model can be followed with Arab air forces, the Israel Air Force or Western air forces deployed temporarily on Arab soil.
The point is that the organizer of the spear is on the sea base, and this capability can be conjoined with the various air combat centers extant or being developed in the region. This is a role the evolving ESG, under the twin influence of the Osprey and the F-35B, will be well suited to play.
The op ed first appeared in Defense News April 16, 2012
http://www.defensenews.com/article/20120415/DEFFEAT05/304150007/Shaping-Battlespace
A Special Report on BA-12 can be found here:
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