So, again, what are those plenty of other platforms? And what do you think Marine TACAIR should be doing? And against what threat country? And on what day of the war?
If the plenty of other platforms you are talking about is USAF/USN, and USMC gets out of TACAIR completely, then OK I agree. Doing it half-hearted is a waste.
A single seat VMFA with 12 dudes in it has the same collateral requirement BS as a skid squadron with aloooot more dudes to share the pain. Things like one person filling two DH roles, or DHs being gapped, is a real thing. With BS like that going on, it’s not whining. It’s everything Brett said.
Arguably Marine TACAIR could be replaced with some mix of Gen 4, Armed UAS, and/or a dedicated FW multirole gunship. The nuclear option is complete TACAIR divestment but there is value in dedicated assets, but just not on the scale of the budget monster of the F-35. Show me a requirement that Marine TACAIR needs to be a day 1 asset against a peer adversary to accomplish what our Marine ground customers need. The lack of Group 4/5 Armed UAS procurement until very recently in the Corps is directly from undue influence from the TACAIR mafia, and then made the crappy RQ-21 buy fall under green dollars robbing ground Marines of funding. Lots of heartburn and trust issues with Marine Air from the Infantry community due to that issue.
Got it - Manning sucked. I have yet to be an HMLA squadron that wasn’t split 2-3 ways across the pacific during a deployment. I think I was in a 1.0 HMLA a total of about 1 year in my entire fleet tour. We also have over 30 aircraft in 1 squadron plus a maintenance department twice the size of a VMFA. There are more aircraft in some HMLAs than some FW MAGs. You think we don’t need every bit of those officers and SNCOs to maintain readiness?
The rest of the assault support communities have also picked up the vast majority of FW FAC and IA tours - so the shitty job complaints are an equal opportunity employer. You also have PMOS school trained officers now running VMFA principle staff positions. No other community gets a dedicated LogO and is usually gapped an intel officer until deployments. Lastly, some manning issues (AV-8B community) were self inflicted wounds from poor community production management (Not sequestration or the airlines initially).
Yes and no. The way the COCOMs plan for force allocation, the high end fight sits in that low probability/high impact part of the ORM matrix. In truth the COCOMs (INDOPACOM to be specific) don't see war w/ China as low probability, but that's the world they live and breathe, so that mindset kinda comes with the job. L-class may get called in during a crisis, but we've also got those SP-MAGTF constructs, though I get that they have different capes. I guess to clarify my previous statement, I'm not saying we get rid of L-class... just reexamine the cost/benefit, given that we're likely to face a pretty significant force on force scenario with out CSGs if China does ever happen.
Good points, Brett. I will counter that L-Class are comparatively way cheaper than an CSG. To the point that it would likely take divestment of a large portion of L-Class to procure just 1 CSG and it’s airwing (Dollar for dollar). We will likely not get away from the CENTCOM vs INDOPACOM food fight over resourcing in our lifetimes. SPMAGTF was a result of poor L-Cass availability from the Libya fiasco. Lots of limitations on those forces but that’s another topic (BOG limits, flexibility, diplomatic issues). We need to convince the Surface Navy to ditch the LCS, Zumwalt, and other pet projects that have yielded little to no benefit.
Flying a complex weapons system like the F-35 that has USAF and USN backing is a huge benefit, if not a necessity. IMO, the USMC doesn't have the ability to manage every aspect of a program like that to fully take advantage of its capabilities, from requirements, acquisition, test, TAC D&E, employment recommendations, etc. It needs USAF and USN assistance.
It’s even easier if you buy a mix of platforms that were already developed, bought, and paid for by another service. Although every other community in the Marines has done exactly what you describe over the last 2 decades. Not sure why you assume it would be other wise for a separate FW platform.
