By Carlo Munoz
The recent Marine Corps tank deployments in Southwest Afghanistan will likely continue, as U.S. and coalition forces continue to push Taliban elements from the area, a top field commander said yesterday.
“I have made the case and [they] are using them and using them well,” Mills said. “I think [they] will make the same decision I made, and that is keep the tanks. But again that is [the commander’s] decision,” Marine Expeditionary Force I (Forward) commander Maj. Gen. Richard Mills said shortly after a Defense Writers Group breakfast in Washington.
Fresh from his recent deployment to Regional Command-Southwest, Mills said the performance of the 17 M1A1 Abrams tanks under his command was a tremendous asset to ground forces, particularly in the restive and often violent Helmand province–the spiritual home of the Taliban.
Mills has been nominated by the White House to receive his third star and assume the top slot as the commander at Marine Corps Combat Development Command in Quantico, Va. Before his time as I MEF chief, Mills was the commanding officer for the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
Acknowledging that fielding heavy armor–particularly in such a difficult and rugged environment as Afghanistan–does come with its own tactical challenges, the amount of capability they bring to fight was evident to the two-star general. To that end, Mills personally requested the Abrams deployments after his arrival in RC-Southwest.
“I met with Gen. [David] Petraeus..and he asked me what else I wanted, and I said tanks, because of what they gave you,” Mills recalled. “For a relatively small force, about 125 individuals, I got 17 battle tanks that gave me tremendous optics… and a precision weapon that can reach out to 3,000 meters and touch the enemy…[and] get that round through the window.”
Shortly after their deployment, the tank’s mobility and durability also proved beneficial in countering improvised explosive devices used against U.S. troops in the region, Mills said in a March briefing from Afghanistan (Defense Daily, March 4).
During their time in the field, the tanks were hit by a number of IEDs that, Mills said at the time, were so massive that they “would have killed Marines” traveling in other types of vehicles, such as Humvees or the newer Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles. But the M1A1 crews who were on board during those attacks were not only unharmed but relatively unphased by the strikes and continued with their missions.
But as the nature of the fight in Afghanistan changes, with U.S. forces beginning to expand control beyond Helmand and RC-Southwest, the flexibility of the Marine Corps heavy mechanized units will remain a valuable commodity to ground commanders.
“If I was going south, let’s say, through those wide open desert spaces heading toward the Pakistani border, I would use them, but then again that is [the commander’s] decision,” according to Mills.
The two-star general also said that fielding heavy, tracked armor like the Abrams, as opposed to a Light Armored Vehicle (LAV) or similar platforms, did not run contrary to findings in the recent Marine Corps force posture review calling for a lighter, faster and more lethal force.
“I always brought tanks with me when I was a [Marine Expeditionary Unit] commander, despite the fact that many people said that you do not need them,” due to the logistical difficulties in getting the vehicles to the field, Mills said. “There is a psychological impact of a tank coming ashore…I believe in them.”