Forces afloat: Marine Corps makes strong pitch for 'sea bases'.

• Author: Jean, Grace V.
• Position: Sea Bases

* PANAMA CITY, Fla. -- Senior Marine Corps officials are asking Navy leaders to commit to a plan to deploy floating military bases within the next decade.

Since 2002, the Navy and Marine Corps have debated "sea basing" options as alternative means to bring troops close to shore when land bases are not accessible. Advocates point to Turkey denying U.S. forces fights to its ports and airfield before the invasion of Iraq as an example of why the United States needs to be able to launch operations from the sea.

So far, however, there is little consensus on what exactly constitutes a sea base. Some officials have argued that the Navy already deploys sea bases--in the form of aircraft carriers, large-deck amphibious ships and cargo vessels. Others, particularly in the Marine Corps, contend that future sea bases require more sophisticated equipment that the Navy currently does not have.

"Sea basing would allow the military to exploit maneuver of the seas 365 days a year," said Lt. Gen. James Amos, head of the Marine Corps Combat Development Command, at an NDIA conference.

Troops could be as far as 150 miles off shore and still have the ability to operate from the sea base doing a range of missions, from humanitarian assistance to major combat operations, he said.

Beyond attaining access for major combat operations, the need for sea bases has been demonstrated in recent natural disaster relief and humanitarian aid missions around the globe, officials said.

Shortly after his installation as chief of naval operations, Adm. Gary Roughead formed a "sea basing and forcible entry task force"--an advisory group consisting of leaders in academia and industry. The task force will pay particular attention to relationships and cooperation among the maritime services and international and interagency partners, said Cmdr. Pamela Kunze, spokeswoman for the chief of naval operations.

"Effective sea basing is critical for maintaining the expeditionary character and versatility of maritime forces ... in areas where access may be denied or limited," she said.

The commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. James T. Conway, recently endorsed the sea basing doctrine.

"One of the important cornerstones in my mind is this concept of sea basing," he said. "To be able to put something at sea that serves as a port and an airfield, to flow things through to shore" in an anti-access environment is crucial, he said.

In the future, Marines want to be able to pre-position forces at...