'Expeditionary Warrior' probes Marine-SOCOM relationships.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: Brief Article

A tabletop war game at Quantico Marine Base for the first time examined the details of how Marines and special operations units could fight as a combined force.

The drill, in late November, was called Expeditionary Warrior, and was part of a wide-ranging war game called Title 10, designed to showcase a military service's capabilities to carry out its statutory responsibilities. The Army, Navy and Air Force each conducts its own yearly Title 10 war games.

In the U.S. code, Title 10 stipulates the responsibilities of the military services to organize, train and equip their forces.

Expeditionary Warrior is the first Title 10 war game that the Marines have conducted since the mid-1990s, when the program was abandoned.

The first iteration of the war game--dubbed Expeditionary Warrior 03-1 -- looked at how a Navy-Marine Expeditionary Strike Group, along with U.S. Special Operations Command forces, would conduct preemptive maneuvers against terrorist cells.

In broad terms, Expeditionary Warrior differs considerably from other Title 10 programs, officials said. This war game consists of an annual series of small, focused combat experiments and related events that can either be connected by a common theme or address discrete issues. The game completed in November was the first in the Expeditionary Warrior series, expected to last through fiscal year 2003.

In charge of organizing the games is the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory. The Expeditionary Warrior event was "different from other programs," said Frank Jordan, director of war gaming at MCWL.

The November event was only one among a series of short war games that make up Expeditionary Warrior, he explained. The idea is to break up the project into smaller pieces, so planners can focus on specific issues. "We need a program that is flexible, fast moving, involves a series of several events, instead of one gigantic event every year," Jordan said. "We are going to have several related events throughout the year, under the general title of Expeditionary Warrior."

Unlike previous war games that did not necessarily lead to changes in Marine Corps concepts of operations and doctrine, Expeditionary Warrior is expected to yield guidance for the future, said Jordan. "We hope to get more focused results that we can get specific action on.

The scenarios in Expeditionary Warrior largely are shaped by events surrounding the U.S. war on terrorism. Most notably, said Jordan, is the emphasis on how the Marine...