Marine Prowlers gone in 2015?

[Reconjoe]

The Marine Times (taken with some skepticism of course) has a story in the current issue regarding the current drive to cut 20,000 Marines, and in the article it included a new blueprint of unit deactivation's through 2015. All 4 VMAQ's are listed for deactivation in 2015. Anyone in VMAQ land know anything more about this? Seem's a little sudden/quicker than we were hearing in the VT's.
Could this be the %16 fixed wing cuts they were talking about here http://militarytimes.com/static/projects/pages/forcestructurereview.pdf

 

[CumminsPilot]

They're going to cut 1/year starting in 2015...gone in 2019

 

[Brett327]

Well, it certainly makes sense. As it stands, the VMAQ animal was going to have to jump through its own ass to sustain itself - mostly to keep some kind of functional RAG going once VAQ-129 is done with Prowlers in a couple years. I've said this for years, but it just doesn't make sense for the Marines to maintain an organic EA community. AEA aircraft are going to continue to be HD/LD national assets, so the notion of Marine EA being used by Marines to support Marines is (and has been) an unrealistic concept. If someone has an argument for keeping them around, I'd love to hear it, but I don't see any good options for VMAQ's future.

Brett

 

[Jim123]

Well, it certainly makes sense. As it stands, the VMAQ animal was going to have to jump through its own ass to sustain itself - mostly to keep some kind of functional RAG going once VAQ-129 is done with Prowlers in a couple years. I've said this for years, but it just doesn't make sense for the Marines to maintain an organic EA community. AEA aircraft are going to continue to be HD/LD national assets, so the notion of Marine EA being used by Marines to support Marines is (and has been) an unrealistic concept. If someone has an argument for keeping them around, I'd love to hear it, but I don't see any good options for VMAQ's future.

I'm pretty sure you'll agree- a lot of that argument for organic VMAQ went away after the USAF EF-111s retired. The in the past decade, USAF EC-130H employment (to support everybody, not just AF) just reinforces the argument that airborne EA assets should be national assets.

I don't have a vested interest either way, but as a former customer of airborne EA (during OIF) I have a passing curiosity in any argument to keep things as-is.

 

[Brett327]

Absolutely. The USN's AEA drug deal with the USAF has been generally unsatisfying for all parties. In addition, the post 9/11 shift toward more unconventional, non SEAD based EA has opened up a whole new customer base for AEA. Times like these, I wish we had a SIPR AW. I presume you were on IA during OIF. The toughest piece has always been coordinating who gets supported and getting people to understand the value of AEA during a TIC situation.

Big picture, whether the Marines sundown their Prowlers in 2015 or 2019 doesn't make a whole lot of difference. We're going to have X number of G airframes to divy up among the Navy assets and those will fill the operational requirements as necessary. What will be interesting to watch evolve is the mix of CVN and expeditionary squadrons as requirements shift. I pray that this nonsense in Iran doesn't spark off another fucking war, but I could see some expeditionary AEA working out of AUAB or other GCC states in that case.

Brett

 

[Reconjoe]

For what it's worth I think most students here have been in general agreement with all the above. The immediate picture for us however...how does this affect us IE when will the RAG stop taking fresh studs?

 

[Brett327]

For what it's worth I think most students here have been in general agreement with all the above. The immediate picture for us however...how does this affect us IE when will the RAG stop taking fresh studs?

That date has already been set and was, for the most part, independent of how long the Marines were going to hold on. Don't know when that date is, but it's probably early to mid 2013. Seems like the Marines were always waffling on how they were going to handle the RAG function. This could be an easy fix/way out.
Brett

 

[Jim123]

Times like these, I wish we had a SIPR AW. I presume you were on IA during OIF.

No SIPR on my current tour; you presume correctly- Iraq from late '07 to mid '09. I can't speak to how well everybody gets along (or not) between Big Navy and Big Blue though.