The Security Cooperation MAGTF—Fighting the Long War
By LtCol Chuck Risio, USMCR
May 2008
In the not-too-distant future, Marines will be fighting the global war on terrorism in a new, more fundamental way. The Long War Concept, recently approved by General James T. Conway, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, is part of a Department of Defense effort to better meet the irregular threats and other causes of instability we are likely to continue to confront.
The Long War Concept is a vision for Marine force employment that provides a persistent, forward-deployed Marine presence across key regions in the world, while still providing the nation with the ability to conduct full spectrum operations. This is accomplished with the Security Cooperation Marine Air-Ground Task Force (SC MAGTF). For leathernecks and their families, that means a return to a familiar Marine Expeditionary Unit-like Operational Cycle, but with an added capability.
Security Cooperation is a mission requirement for all Geographic Combatant Commanders, and the SC MAGTF provides the capability to meet that requirement—which the Marine Corps is uniquely able to provide. Security cooperation is founded on the idea of cooperative activities between the United States and other countries with similar values and interests in order to meet common defense goals.
A partial list of activities that fall under the security cooperation umbrella include Partner Nation Capacity Building; Security Assistance; Information Sharing/Intelligence Cooperation; Counter-Drug Assistance; Humanitarian Assistance; Small-Unit Training in Tactics, Techniques and Procedures; Staff Training; and Small-Unit Leader Development. Any number of other possible activities could arise depending on the circumstances and the partner country’s resources, abilities and needs.
The SC MAGTF will be similar to the MEU(SOC) that has served our nation so well during the past decades. Built around an infantry battalion, it would have a composite aviation squadron and a combat logistics element. The deployment workup would include the Block 1 through Block 4 packages currently in the predeployment training plan, and also the more traditional evolutions, such as combined arms exercises (CAXs), mountain warfare training and amphibious exercises.
The purpose of each particular SC MAGTF would determine additional attachments and training. So the SC MAGTF headed to the Middle East might take along a larger attachment with anti-armor capabilities, while the one deploying to South America perhaps would need more engineering support, medical capability and rotary wing augmentation.
Just as some regiments habitually supported the MEU(SOC) deployment cycle and others supported the unit deployment program cycle, the parent regiment of each SC MAGTF would have a habitual regional focus. Some would support South America, others would support the Middle East, and others would support the Pacific area.
What really sets the SC MAGTF apart from traditional MEU(SOC)s is the regionally focused language and culture training. Building cultural awareness and language proficiency through this regional focus makes the SC MAGTF a much more useful and potent organization for the combatant commander.
This regional focus starts well before the SC MAGTF is formed. Marines are screened for language skills as early as possible, even while at the recruit depots. Native speakers might attend language schools along with those who volunteer or are assigned.
Certain regiments then will be tasked with providing habitually assigned battalions to their designated area and be staffed accordingly. For example, Marines with a Hispanic or South American background would be assigned to the regiment that is tasked with the habitual support of South America. These Marines would experience all the other parts of a typical military career including recruiting duty, staff assignments, etc. But most of their time in the operating forces would be spent in a deploying battalion whose parent regiment focuses on a certain region.
The tool that makes this happen is the Career Marine Regional Studies (CMRS) program. Newly commissioned lieutenants at The Basic School and sergeants in the sergeants’ course are introduced to cultural concepts and their application in military operations. Two follow-on professional military education courses complete each region’s study packages.
Regional Affairs Officers and Foreign Affairs Officers (RAOs/FAOs) also will be billet-coded to this regiment and tasked out to deploying SC MAGTFs as needed. The entire SC MAGTF undergoes regional training. Under coordination from the Marine Corps Training and Advisory Group (MCTAG), the Marine Corps Intelligence Activity (MCIA) provides detailed and specific country studies, and the Center for Advanced Operational Culture Learning (CAOCL) conducts tailored training packages relative to the destination area for each SC MAGTF.
Another distinguishing feature of the SC MAGTF is how it gets to and operates in its area. The U.S. Navy is moving forward with its Global Fleet Station (GFS) concept, which is related to the Long War Concept. GFS is intended to provide a persistent sea base from which to conduct shaping operations.
The composition of these sea bases would depend on the needs of the Combatant Commander, the needs of the host nation, the operating environment and the missions to be conducted. Platforms for the GFS sea base could range from LHAs; LPDs; surface combatants, such as destroyers or frigates; intra-theater high-speed vessels (HSVs); or perhaps even a new class of ship specifically built for security cooperation type missions.
The idea is to allow the GFS sea base to operate a self-contained headquarters with the capacity to provide command and control facilities, classroom space, medical facilities, combat service support and on-ship repair facilities.
Just as Marines start training with the basics and progressively move to advanced techniques, the partner nations that we work with would start from the ground up. This doesn’t mean that Marines would be running partner nations’ boot camps, but it might entail advising partner nations’ drill instructor training courses. The basics, in this case, are the presumption of a certain level of proficiency and willingness to improve certain skills.
One of the most sought-after basic training programs has been the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program (MCMAP). For the training providers and recipients, equipment and facility requirements are minimal, progress is immediately measurable, and it provides a tremendous morale boost.
Basic and Advanced Marksmanship training is another relatively simple exercise series to conduct, as are Combat Lifesaving, Patrolling, Combat Engineering and more. Building on these basics, more advanced training can take place. Small-Unit Leader Professional Development is an area in which the Marines excel. Other activities include bilateral training in peacekeeping operations, basic Foreign Internal Defense, Counter-Insurgency and Border Patrolling.
All of these activities are conducted throughout the entire SC MAGTF area of operations(an entire geographic combatant command). These training events, and the units conducting them, are spread out. A Reinforced Platoon might conduct marksmanship training in one area, while a Reinforced Squad is conducting MCMAP training in another province, while another Company, reinforced with Engineers, is training in obstacle clearing in yet another area or even a neighboring country.
An important thing to keep in mind is the fact that the SC MAGTF shouldn’t be thought of as a “MEU-light.” Because of the regular pre-deployment training, the SC MAGTF is fully capable of rapidly joining back together as a single cohesive unit and conducting combat operations just as expected of any other MAGTF.
MEUs that now deploy are well prepared for Iraq because of the intense training at Exercise Mojave Viper conducted at Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, Calif. But it wasn’t so long ago that MEUs and Battalion Landing Teams did CAXs, Amphibious Operation Exercises and Training in Urban Environment (TRUEX) exercises in preparation for Western Pacific or Mediterranean Sea floats. As the Commandant, Gen Conway, stated, the demands of Iraq meant less attention to the traditional missions of Marines. He is concerned that we are not doing the other types of training that make us capable of meeting threats across the full spectrum of conflict.
To appreciate how all these elements work together in the Long War Concept, it’s helpful to see an example of what a proposed SC MAGTF goes through in its entire cycle. Set in the future, roughly four or five years from now, you will see how this unit conducts predeployment training, deployment, primary mission execution, contingency mission execution and redeployment.
In this example, since we’re in the near future, we’ll assume that most of our DOD and Marine Corps initiatives are well underway. The MV-22 Osprey has replaced the CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter in half of the medium-lift squadrons, the internally transportable vehicle (ITV) is fielded, and the new geographic combatant command, United States Africa Command (USAFRICOM), is fully operational.
The Second Marine Regiment is designated as the “Africa Regiment” and has the responsibility of rotating its three battalions to Africa on a six-month deployment as an SC MAGTF. The 2d Battalion, 2d Marines is designated SC MAGTF 2/2 and is about to execute the predeployment training program. The unit already is locked on for CAX, including the entire Range 400 series, and amphibious landing exercises with USS Mesa Verde (LPD-19). There are 19 Marines in 2/2 who speak languages native to West Africa, 23 more who speak French, and another eight Marine linguists attached as individual augments.
Further specialized training on the region is provided by MCIA, with cultural orientation provided by CAOCL. Supporting 2/2 is a civil affairs detachment, a combat engineer platoon, a military police platoon and an explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) detachment. Other agencies contributing personnel include federal law enforcement officers from the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the National Intelligence Community.
The aviation element is a composite squadron of MV-22s and CH-53 Super Stallions. With a combat logistics element, SC MAGTF 2/2 will operate aboard USS Mesa Verde and the littoral combat ship USS Independence (LCS-2), which will meet them in theater. Command and control is accomplished by augmenting the headquarters of 2/2 with additional personnel from the regiment, thus making the battalion headquarters element also serve as the SC MAGTF headquarters element. This headquarters element provides direct command and control of its security cooperation activities, as directed by the AFRICOM combatant commander and coordinated through the regional Marine Corps Training and Advisory Group.
After completing predeployment training, SC MAGTF 2/2 deploys by air to Rota, Spain, marries up with its equipment and embarks on the ships. The SC MAGTF headquarters, the subordinate element headquarters and Company E, acting as the reserve, remain aboard ship. Weapons Company leathernecks also remain aboard ship.
“Fox” Co, reinforced with the engineer platoon, deploys directly from Rota to southwest Algeria to train with the Algerian military on patrolling techniques and border enforcement. The military police, along with the federal law enforcement agents, head to Lagos, Nigeria, to work with government security forces on antidrug-smuggling efforts.
Finally, Golf Co conducts dispersed operations with three platoons, reinforced with explosive ordnance disposal and civil affairs Marines, conducting humanitarian operations with USAID and the United Nations World Food Programme as well as de-mining efforts across the trans-Sahel region of Africa with U.N. and African Union forces.
SC MAGTF 2/2 is able to support all of these widely dispersed operations by leveraging the advantages of the sea-based GFS and organic logistics element supported by the long-range Ospreys, as well as contracted local services.
In our example scenario, with six weeks remaining in the deployment, SC MAGTF 2/2 is ordered to respond to the U.S. ambassador’s call for help in Sierra Leone. Large violent riots threaten national elections with the additional possibility of a military coup in the capital of Freetown. The headquarters element and Echo and Weapons companies, still operating at sea, sail for Freetown.
MV-22s gather platoons from Golf Co and fly directly to the capital, with Fox Co boarding C-130 aircraft sent from Rota. SC MAGTF 2/2 remains in Freetown providing additional embassy security and safeguarding the nearby municipal soccer stadium and port facilities in preparation for a possible noncombatant evacuation operation. With the arrival of the 24th MEU, the situation calms and SC MAGTF 2/2 returns to its original mission.
This example shows one possible deployment cycle of an SC MAGTF, but even more important is the continuous forward presence established with this concept. As SC MAGTF 2/2 is leaving West Africa, another SC MAGTF is ready to immediately replace it, falling in on the same gear.
Although only an example, with notionally identified units and assets, this concept is already on its way to becoming reality. The Marine Corps always will maintain the capability to provide well-trained and -equipped general-purpose forces. The SC MAGTF is another versatile tool to engage in irregular warfare and to meet the challenges of an uncertain security environment.
Editor’s note: LtCol Risio is a Marine Corps Reserve infantry officer currently activated and assigned to Plans Branch, PP&O, HQMC. He previously was activated and deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
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