Innovation, the Marine Corps, and Seventy Years of Vertical Envelopment

If you read this blog, then you probably have more than a passing interest in all things navy. Because of that interest, you have probably received a large dose of innovation articles in your social media feeds over the past year or so.  Frankly, I see the fascination with innovation as another passing management fad, which in a few more years will be overtaken by the next MBA-buzzword onto which we military professionals tend to glom.  That’s not to say military innovation in and of itself is trendy; of course it’s timeless, but the term has become so over-used in DoD circles lately as to be virtually meaningless.

One of the things that makes my eyes glaze over in the military innovation infatuation is desire to emulate Silicon Valley. Certainly modern civilization owes much to young entrepreneurs who have given us smart phones, social media, and instantaneous global communications. These technologies went from ideas to widespread consumer acceptance very rapidly.  However, innovative thinking and action in the U.S. military predates innovation in the Valley by a long shot. The one organization that has proven time and time again that they not only produce innovative ideas, but can translate them into executable combat operations is the United States Marine Corps.

USMC HO3S-1 departs with wounded Marine Korea 1951

B.J. Armstrong recently penned an article on exactly that subject:

"If military organizations don't fit the Silicon Valley mold for innovation, how did the Marine Corps accomplish such a wholesale and revolutionary innovation?"

To illustrate how the Marines broke out of their amphibious frontal assault mindset that made them famous in World War II, B.J. writes (and speaks, if you prefer video) about some forward thinkers in the Post-War Marine Corps who revolutionized maneuver warfare with the help of a new technology, namely helicopters.  These concepts were quickly proven in action during the Korean War and subsequent operations.

"The development of rotary-wing doctrine by the Marine Corps demonstrates that we need much more than the rebel innovator with the good idea. We need senior officers who are quick to recognize a problem and are willing to take action, despite the risks involved. We need senior officers who understand that if you aren’t innovating, you aren’t improving, and if you aren’t improving, you’re falling behind the enemy. Change is good."

Please allow me to interrupt this post with a shameless plug:

Wearing another hat, I am part of an organization called the Center For International Maritime Security. In keeping with the theme of smart ideas at a young age, we want to encourage students early-on to think about the importance of Seapower to global trade and national security.  To further this goal, we're sponsoring a Maritime Security Essay Scholarship contest.  So get those bored high schoolers on winter break off the couch and in front of your laptop to writing and maybe they'll even win some money!  

Fast forward seven decades later: Although helicopter technology is much improved, the the concept of vertical envelopment (or rotary wing air assault, if you prefer), has been largely unchanged since Korea.  Essentially, vertical envelopment involves seizing objectives on the flanks or rear of an enemy using helicopters, or other airborne assault methods, such as parachute troops.   Granted, helicopters provide modern militaries much more than just vertical envelopment, including revolutionized logistics, search and rescue, and scouting, to name just a few missions.  But their importance to maneuver warfare has been proven in practically every war since those early days of Korea.

Recently though, a new capability has begun to disrupt our traditional notions of vertical envelopment and rotary wing operations. The V-22, despite its troubled development history and opinions of continued naysayers, is radically changing the way the Marine Corps deploys and fights. Able to self-deploy over strategically significant distances, the Osprey's primary strengths are its range and speed.

A Liberian soldier and a United States Marine take cover as a V-22 Osprey
buzzes overhead in Tubmanburg, north of Monrovia. CreditJohn Moore/Getty Images

The Marines'  MV-22 operations in Iraq and Afghanistan were largely similar to those of other helicopters in their inventory.  But for post-COIN operations, the Osprey has opened a range of new operational possibilities.

The 2012 attack on the Benghazi consulate was a wake-up call to the U.S. military on a number of levels.  In previous decades, such a non-combatant evacuation operation would have likely been handled by a nearby offshore amphibious readiness group loaded with Marines and their helicopters.  But today, the U.S. Navy simply doesn't have the amphibious force structure to forward deploy ships to the right places in order to quickly respond to such contingencies.  Enter the Special Marine Air Ground Task Force-Crisis Response.  Two SPMAGTFs, each scalable up to a battalion of Marines and Sailors, were stood up in 2013 to provide a self-sustaining rapidly mobile "balanced, expeditionary force with built-in command, ground, aviation and logistics elements and organized, trained and equipped to accomplish a specific mission."  One force, based in Spain, was established to respond to crises in Africa, while the other is intended to support contingency operations in the Middle East.  The MV-22 provides the critical enabler to both SPMAGTFs' agility and mobility.

Earlier this year, eight MV-22s and 200 Marines from the SPMAGTF-CR quietly supported the evacuation of the U.S. Embassy staff in Tripoli, Libya. Then in the fall, a company of Marines self-deployed 1,500 nautical miles with MV-22s (refueled by KC-130Js) to Dakar, Senegal to assist in the Ebola outbreak response.  Some may argue that these ground-based deployments are pulling Marines away from their amphibious roots. Perhaps, but the MV-22 is really facilitating the Marine Corps' continued supremacy as the world's most expeditionary fighting force. 

The Marines aren't the only organization changing the way they fight because of the Osprey.  Nearly a year ago, while most Americans were finishing up their Christmas shopping, another group of military innovators from the Air Force Special Operations Command put the Osprey to its ultimate test.  On the morning of December 21, 2013, three CV-22s took off from Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti loaded with a platoon of Navy SEALs to evacuate a group of stranded U.S. citizens from civil war-torn South Sudan.  Over 750 nautical miles later, while on final approach to the United Nations airfield at Bor, the aircraft were engaged with heavy ground fire from nearby rebel forces. The three aircraft, although badly shot up and leaking fuel, took turns sucking gas from the waiting MC-130 tankers while they quickly flew another 375 nautical miles to get four seriously wounded special operators to Entebbe, Uganda for transfer to a waiting C-17 and further medical evacuation to Kenya.  Through their skill and valor, the AFSOC pilots narrowly averted a major disaster and were awarded the prestigious MacKay Trophy. The point of this story is that a special operations vertical infiltration this long could not have even been conceived without the capability provided by the CV-22.   (By comparison, another ill-fated operation in 1979 to rescue the Iranian hostages involved a 600 mile RH-53 flight from USS Nimitz to the Desert One forward refueling point. Ironically, Operation Eagle Claw became the impetus for the U.S. military's acquisition of the V-22, among other initiatives).

The Osprey is certainly not without its weaknesses, including a limited cargo capacity compared to its predecessors and a lack of ballistic protection in the passenger compartment as demonstrated above.  But some of these weaknesses are being addressed, and the aircraft continues to evolve with the addition of new avionics, armor, and forward firing missiles.

Simply put, the Osprey has allowed Marine Corps to continue its tradition of warfighting innovation and maintain their lead as the expeditionary service of choice for America's Geographic Combatant Commanders.  But as always, people are more important to innovation than hardware. Be it Colonel Edward Dyer in the 1940s or today's Marine Corps and AFSOC Osprey pilots, military innovators turn ideas and new technology into operationally-relevant capabilities.  And today as it was then, without top-cover from senior leadership, good ideas tend to fizzle out.

The opinions and views expressed in this post are those of the author alone and are presented in his personal capacity. They do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Department of Defense or any of its agencies.