Marine Corps headquarters restructured its combat development and integration office to bring more prominence to its seabasing portfolio.
The Seabasing Integration Division now reports directly to the deputy commandant for combat development and integration. Seabasing used to fall under the Capabilities Development Directorate at CD&I, whereas now it has been pulled out and given equal status.
Maj. Gen. Andrew O’Donnell, the assistant deputy commandant for CD&I, told reporters on Wednesday that he has seen both the requirements side and the operational side of seabasing and believes the restructure will greatly improve how the Marine Corps pursues seabasing.
“In my experience, coming the last two years from Japan at U.S. Forces Japan, the things that we’re doing out there in the Pacific and the forces that we have stationed out there, particularly in Japan, they don’t stay in Japan much–they’re going to go up to the Korean Peninsula, they go to exercises in Thailand, Australia,” O’Donnell said in a press briefing at Marine Corps Base Quantico. “We always took [seabasing requirements] seriously, but maybe we’re taking it a little bit more seriously. And it’s not just because of shrinking budgets and that type of thing, but we really honestly believe this is going to be the way of the future, and I think it’s pretty hard not to see that.”
He said that Jim Strock, the director of the Seabasing Integration Division, would report directly to the deputy commandant and would attend higher level meetings now to promote amphibious ships, connectors, logistics ships and more as part of the overall joint force.
O’Donnell, who led the Capabilities Development Directorate several years ago, said he is familiar with the very large portfolio there. The move allows the CDD director to focus on the remaining aspects of the portfolio, while elevating seabasing to a higher status. O’Donnell said that he would be at many of the same meetings as Strock, and as a big proponent of seabasing himself, amphibious and prepositioning needs would be given a much louder voice in discussions with the Navy and the Defense Department.
“What it will hopefully showcase is the Marine Corps’ intensity on this portfolio,” O’Donnell said.
Strock said the move comes at a time when the Army and foreign militaries are taking seabasing more seriously too. He said over the past three or four years he’s developed a good relationship with the Army’s Combined Armed Support Command and others in charge of Army watercraft. The Army has its own fleet of connectors and logistics ships, which ought to be interoperable with Navy/Marine Corps platforms.
In June 2015, the Marine Corps will show off its prepositioning ships in the Combined Joint Logistics Over the Shore Exercise 2015 (CJLOTS 15) in South Korea, but it will be the Army performing the near in-shore offloading.
“Any operation you’re going to have in the future, be it humanitarian assistance or whatever, most likely will be joint and or multinational in character,” Strock said. “So it’s up to us now to develop the tactics, techniques and procedures and policies necessary to better operate with our sister services and multinational partners in the future.”