But not if the Corps has to rely on the Army to deliver an armor punch. The point of expeditionary forces already on site is that the right tools are available when needed. He poked at how these changes will affect the Corps’ self-identified “America’s 911” moniker for decades through its use of forward-deployed Marine operating units with the Marine air-ground task force, a combined arms package to meet any threat.
Spencer pointed out that the 82nd Airborne Division, the Army’s Global Response Force, recently began experimenting with a light tank it can take anywhere in the world, airborne. …they’re all urban littoral zones,” Spencer said.Īnd, he noted, by not having mobile protected firepower such as a tank in the toolkit, dismounted troops entering a city will have to rely more on mortars, close air support and other assets that put both them and the civilian population at risk. “I cannot envision a littoral zone that would require an expeditionary force that would not include a city.
And with the majority of the world’s current and future megacities in the Pacific region, most in the littoral zones, the retired major sees that as inevitable. Spencer said that ditching the tank entirely severely handicaps the Marine Corps should it need to fight in a city. John Spencer, who started his career as an enlisted soldier and saw combat in Iraq, is now the chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern Warfare Institute at West Point in New York. Where the tank treads meet the road for the individual Marine or solider is when the fighting hits a city. “There is no organizational effort in the Army to replace the tank.” “I don’t think we’ve seen the end of the tank,” he said. The retired three-star general still sees the importance of the tank land warfare, noting those added brigades, modernization and upgrades to the existing tank fleet and investment by the Army. But the Army recently did add two more Armored Brigade Combat Teams, putting those numbers up to 16 ABCTs. Spoehr did understand nervousness among some Marine leaders on looking to the Army for armor in a quick-response fight.
0 kommentar(er)
