Navy, Marine Corps rethink expeditionary warfare.

• Author: Benes, Thomas A.
• Position: COMMENTARY

* Expeditionary warfare is defined in the Defense Department's dictionary of military terms as "military operations mounted from the sea, usually on short notice, consisting of forward deployed, or rapidly deployable, self-sustaining naval forces tailored to achieve a clearly stated objective."

Mission areas include amphibious operations, littoral and mine countermeasures and deploying floating bases.

According to the Navy's 2012 operational concept, "Being expeditionary is one of our defining characteristics--we are ready to fight when we leave the pier."

Expeditionary warfare is evolving to meet the demands of a future beyond the Iraq-Afghanistan conflicts. The Navy is rebalancing its forward deployment posture, and the Marine Corps is in transition from land-centric warfare.

New conditions are driving requirements and training in ways much different from the past.

Near-term needs are being characterized more by how the Navy and Marine Corps will operate given current platforms and systems. This represents a subtle shift in acquisition and contracting priorities for the industries that support the expeditionary warfare customers. Many companies are taking the opportunity to reassess and realign capabilities. With all of the uncertainties surrounding the defense contracting business, it is important for industry to understand the underlying conditions driving change.

Defense Department budget and acquisition cutbacks have forced both the Navy and Marine Corps to look more closely at amphibious doctrine and readiness to close capability gaps. The services realize that programs and large investments are not the answer, at least for the near term.

Lessons from recent exercises conducted this year such as Expeditionary Warrior and Bold Alligator indicate that the ability to. operate "upon arrival" is paramount.

Readiness, or the ability to execute core capabilities, is becoming more evident in service budget priorities. Acquisition leaders have taken up the mantle of "providing readiness at cost" as a discriminator in their accounts.

The biggest change driver for expeditionary warfare is the new defense strategy that commits the Navy and Marine Corps back to forward presence, crisis response and power projection missions.

Forces will be shifting toward the Asia-Pacific region. But unfettered littoral access for expeditionary forces can no longer be assumed because of the increase in sophistication and proliferation of anti-access area denial...