Canada Expected to Arrive in Haiti Today - Updated

The Canadians have two ships arriving to Haiti today. Noteworthy, one of the ships is going to Jacmel. There is a small airport at Jacmel. Worth a look at the map. I wonder if any Marines will land down there?

Update: Lots of activity observed via twitter offshore at Leogane, Haiti. May be where 22 MEU is coming ashore. If so, check out the WFP assessment map here based on local collection.There is a UN base in Leogane, so it makes more sense. I had previously speculated the Marines would come ashore at Carrefore.

Makes sense though. The Canadians intend to connect the road from Jacmel to Leogane, and if work is done on the airstrip down there, one can look at the Google Map to get a feel for how they plan to open lines of communication around the earthquake epicenter.

We'll know more in the morning. For real time updates of Haiti, I still highly recommend Ushahidi. Play with it a bit if at first intimidated or confused, and you'll see why.

Maritime Observations of Operation United Response

Tuesday afternoon will mark the one week anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti. Several maritime operations are underway worth observing.

Maj. Gen. Cornell A. Wilson repeatedly called the MEU arriving off Haiti a Sea Base (audio here). That term has been used in so many ways since Seapower 21 that it has become impossible to define, but I do believe his use in this case is accurate based on what is unfolding. It will be interesting to see where the Marines land in Haiti. Based on satellite imagery I suspect they will land southwest of the port near Carrefour, closer to the epicenter of the earthquake and not necessarily near the airport giving the relief operation a distributed feeling. There have been many reports of security problems in Carrefour, which may put the Marines in position to provide security even if the Secretary of Defense suggests security isn't their role.

USNS Grasp (T-ARS 51) arrived and is working in the port with the U.S. Army's 544th Engineer Dive Team, Explosive Ordnance Disposal group 2, the Mobile and Diving Salvage Unit 2, and Underwater Construction Team 2 under command of Rear Adm. Samuel Perez, Commander, Task Force (CTF) 42. Worth noting from the article:

Grasp and the 544th had been conducting Navy Diver Southern Partnership Station 2010 (ND SPS 10) off the coast of Belize prior to the earthquake in Haiti. Once diverted, the ship made a brief stop in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to refuel and collect food and supplies for humanitarian aid and disaster relief prior to their arrival in Port-au-Prince.

I think that is noteworthy because USS Gunston Hall (LSD 44) has also arrived in Haiti, but had previously been planning on deploying last Friday in support of African Partnership Station (APS) East. We have lost sustained presence in the 4th Fleet and 6th Fleet by diverting units previously tasked as Partnership Stations. Is this an example where Partnership Station deployments are working as designed - able to quickly respond to emerging crisis, or a flaw in the system - presence is lost because assets are needed elsewhere?

I wonder if USS Gunston Hall (LSD 44) would have been sent to Haiti if LPD-17 or LPD-21 were available? These would appear to be issues for Congress.

Worth noting the Nassau ARG deployed Monday with USS Nassau (LHA 4), USS Mesa Verde (LPD 19), and USS Ashland (LSD 48). The ARG has long been scheduled to deploy to the 5th and 6th Fleet AOR, but can always be tasked to go anywhere. It is worth noting the deployment for a different reason though, because when looking at the amphibious ships on the East Coast, the absence of the San Antonio class LPDs raises questions.

USS Whidbey Island is in dry dock. USS Ponce (LPD 15) and USS Oak Hill (LSD 51) returned with the USS Bataan and the 22 MEU deployment in December 2009, and may be in maintenance availability already. In other words, all the Marines have is the USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7), USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) and USS Wasp (LHD 1) in reserve after the USS Nassau (LHA 4) and 24 MEU deploy, and it is unlikely all three LHDs are actually available.

Big deck amphibious ships are flexible and extraordinarily useful, but they are so expensive that the Marines simply can't field enough of them. I would argue that the 22 MEU response to Haiti is an excellent example of the kind of strategic speed that makes amphibious ships important, but the emphasis of amphibious ships in the Marine Corps existing maritime force structure doesn't give the Marines a response capability with tactical speed. If Marines are the countries 9/11 force - tactical speed does matter.

The future of the Marine Corps may become a big debate in 2010, and I for one hope they are looking beyond Amphibious ships and the EFV while not being forced to settle for JHSVs and Littoral Combat Ships. I think the Marines represent a very important debate that is a great deal more complicated than specific equipment discussions, and it will come over the next 30 days. I intend to participate in that debate from the cheap seats.

As the Coast Guard has demonstrated over the last 7 days, a platoon of Marines could potentially do a hell of a lot of good on a smaller vessel, and if smaller vessels were organized in squadrons one would have the necessary intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and communications to effectively deploy a Marine Rifle Company for distributed ops in littorals very much in line with the company level operations being done in Afghanistan. I think that article was one of the most important Marine Corps articles of 2009, a must read, and will be linked many times from this blog in the future.

As of Tuesday morning there will be at least 10 US Navy ships around Haiti including USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70), USS Higgins (DDG 76), USS Normandy (CG 60), USS Underwood (FFG 36), USS Bataan (LHD 5), USS Fort McHenry (LSD 43), USS Gunston Hall (LSD 44), USS Carter Hall (LSD 50) USNS Grasp (T-ARS 51), and USNS Big Horn (T-AO-198). Additionally 5 Coast Guard cutters including USCGC Oak (WLB 211), USCGC Forward (WMEC-911), USCGC Tahoma (WMEC 908), USCGC Mohawk (WMEC-913), and USCGC Valiant (WMEC 621) are offshore of Haiti. Combined there will be at least 48 helicopters supporting the operation as of Tuesday morning, almost all (and maybe all) of which are provided by the maritime services.

Other ships expected to arrive this week include USS Bunker Hill (CG 52), USNS Henson (T-AGS 63), USNS Sumner (T-AGS 61), USNS Savagawea (T-AKE 2), and USNS 1st LT Jack Lummus (T-AK 3011).

The Army appears to be preparing to build a port, and has deployed several ships that carry some of their maritime equipment. gCaptain has a must read on MARAD assets being deployed to Haiti.

The U.S. Maritime Administration announced Monday that MV Gopher State, MV Cornhusker State and SS Cape May will join OPDS Petersburg from California and M/V Huakai from Hawaii.

“Sending these ships will help those on the front line of this effort save as many lives in Haiti as possible,” Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood said. “These ships will add crucial capabilities by supporting operations to move large volumes of people and cargo.”

EagleOne has been talking about Joint Over the Sea Logistics here and here over the last few days, and there is nothing left for me to add regarding expectations of this capability beyond his comments. By the way, M/V Huakai is not in Hawaii, both of the former Hawaiian superferry's are in Norfolk. It's a shame the Navy didn't paint them yet, because that color scheme is ugly.

Both links at EagleOne are worth a read for those of you who want to see how the sea logistics will come together both short and long term, likely beginning by the end of next weekend. It takes a lot of time to put some of this together though, so getting the massive equipment to Haiti is only the first step. People may not like it, but we are one week away from being able to provide a some throughput from sea, but perhaps a month away from being able to truly provide major logistics support on a large scale from sea - assuming everything goes according to plan. The Army project in particular is very expensive and such an operation could cost nearly $40 million or more if the equipment is left behind for a long period of time to support relief in Haiti.

When it is all done, it will be incredible to see, but the type of massive sea based engineering that is being sent to Haiti doesn't come together quickly.

I still have not seen security problems reported in the news that have me concerned... yet, and the weather forecast looks good with no major storms over the rest of the week. I am still very cautiously optimistic about the ability of maritime forces to resolve the logistics issues in Haiti to allow the relief in, but it is still very early in the crisis and the throughput of relief supplies will not significantly increase for several more days.

An air drop of relief supplies, for example, is very dangerous and represents a sign that things are getting desperate on the ground. We have already seen Navy helicopters throw relief supplies out the window to Haitians scrambling underneath. That is another sign of the serious issues in distribution, and immense challenges that must be addressed this week.

The second week will be just as difficult as the first week.

The US Air Force - Haiti Edition

The US Air Force blogging community is tiny, so I thought I'd add something I've noticed with the USAF regarding Haiti. I am not nor will ever attempt to be an expert in the US Air Force, hell I'm fairly weak at naval aviation which I actually do study. I do however know a lot about the US Air Force budget, which only slightly relates to this discussion.

But first, something else. This is a much bigger deal than the almost non-existent reporting on US television gave it. This is an important political statement by the EU, exactly the type of political support necessary to meet the enormous challenges ahead in Haiti.

The European Union on Monday played down suggestions of a rift with the US over the distribution of emergency humanitarian aid in Haiti, devastated last week by an earthquake that may have killed more than 100,000 people.

EU leaders expressed gratitude to the US for keeping open the airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, and said they had received no complaints from non-governmental organisations about the conditions under which aid is reaching Haitians.

The move came as the World Food Programme announced a major escalation of relief aid distribution on the half-island nation, with the giving out of 180,000 ration packs on Monday.

The UN’s biggest relief agency aims to distribute 10m ready-to-eat meals to earthquake survivors in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and elsewhere. Within a month, the goal is to reach 2m people.

There had previously been some complaining by French Secretary of State for Cooperation Alain Joyandet about the job being done by the US at the airport, but apparently the French minister learned how to do the backstroke on Monday. I won't speculate who made the phone call and what was said, but I bet it was an interesting phone call nonetheless.

What was apparently lost on some observers thousands of miles from Haiti is the work being done by USAF Col. Buck Elton and Special Operations Group ONE. Twenty-four hours after a city of three million had its infrastructure destroyed, the government disappeared, and the UN humanitarian mission was decapitated by the earthquake; USAF Special Operations Group ONE had the airport open for use ready to support the largest humanitarian operation in the history of the Western Hemisphere from nothing more than a single long slab of concrete we call a runway.

People do realize that these USAF SOG 1 guys are basically some military dressed dudes in an open tent with communication gear, a few laptops, and if they are very lucky, a portable potty somewhere within walking distance - sitting out in the grass somewhere near the airport runway coordinating air traffic inbound from the entire world, right? Sounds like no big deal from thousands of miles away I guess...

They really are doing an amazing job - from Reuters.

Colonel Buck Elton, commander of the U.S. military directing flights at Haiti's airport, said there had been 600 take-offs and landings since he took over the one-runway airport's traffic on Wednesday, though 50 flights had been diverted...

Elton said the flow of air traffic was improving, with only 3 of 67 incoming flights being rerouted on Saturday, and only two flights diverted on Sunday.

The airport apron can only handle one wide-bodied plane and five narrow-bodied planes at a time, plus other aircraft that can be parked on the grass.

There is an Air Force issue to watch for. MSNBC reported on TV Monday that the rest of the 82 Airborne Division will have to be brought in on chartered commercial airlines, because there are not enough heavy lift aircraft to support the requirement. I have not seen a print report of this yet, but Andrea Mitchell said it on her show Monday.

The report suggested not all the equipment would be able to be brought in to Haiti immediately with the 82nd Airborne, and would come later. If that is true, then I suggest perhaps Congress should be exonerated for pushing for more C-17s and C-130s on top of the President budget requests over the last few years, and this should serve as a reminder that Secretary of Defense Gates has been wrong to push for the cancellation of those programs. The C-130 has been criticized over the last few years, but when I look on TV and see the runways, I see Coast Guard and Air Force C-130s basically carrying this US effort in Haiti.

To see more about US Air Force activities in Haiti, you can follow on the official US Air Force blog.

A Global Force for Good

Interesting video from Defense News TV.

Molto Bene!

The Italians are coming!

Bryan McGrath