EFV: A squad of Marines will change the world

Yesterday at the National Museum of the Marine Corps, the latest Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle was presented to reporters and dignitaries. Mostly it was a bunch of Marines and contractors slapping each other on the back, but underneath was the promise of a Marine Corps with EFV's and how some squad of Marines in the future will change the world.

I know our Defense Secretary questioned the value of the EFV in an emerging world of hybrid threats and non-government actors. Those are valid concerns, the AAV has been around 40 years, and the EFV will be around at least that long. But I would also bet that he sees a need for Marines to be able to move from ships to be able to seize key objectives ashore on the large level....but much more likely, on the level of a Marine Corps Company.

It has happened in the past. Small groups of a few dozen to a few hundred Marines have stemmed an enemy advance, quelled a riot, provided security, turned the tide of a battle, and thereby a war and the world. It will happen again.

Despite the 20,000 or so Marines deployed to Afghanistan, we've added value to the nation by having a few hundred Marines at the right place at the right time. That is what we are already thinking about in a post Enduring Freedom world.

Our MEU's will be asked to do something, squash anti-government forces in a friendly nation perhaps. On my MEU in 1992, we could send the Amtraks 2 miles up the beach, the boats 2 miles down the beach and the H-46's about 20 miles inland, and that was the range of our maneuver. An EFV increases that range by an order of magnitude, and increases the lethality by another order of magnitude above that.

I can see the arguments against it though: amphibious ship and EFV vulnerability to cheap missiles, EFV vulnerability to IED's, cost, complexity, etc.

If you use these reasons for nay-saying the EFV, then we wouldn't get our Marines involved in any dangerous situation, because those risks apply equally to all weapons systems.

The "beauty" of this amphibious monster lies at the Marine Corps Company. Some time, be it in 2020, 2030 or beyond, we will ask a Marine Corps Company to go into a foreign land. They will be out manned by a 10 to 1 ratio, they may be outgunned to some extent, but those are situations Marines have handled before. An emphasis on maneuver and dominance in the fight you are currently in will whittle down the on-paper advantage of hostile forces.

So what if we are outmanned by 10:1, let's move around 70% of their formations.

So what if we are outgunned, if in every confrontation our Marines still emerge victorious due to coordinated and accurate fire.

So yes, I am an amphibious Kool-Aid drinker. I think we need this vehicle to assure dominance in every engagement. To be able to engage and not back away from conflicts near the coast, where 70% of the world's population will live.

So what will we send that world-changing squad of Marines into future small wars and battles with? If you're going to change the world, then bring the right tool to do it.