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The Marine Corps Warfighting
Laboratory/Future Directorate
conducted a limited objective experiment,
with 3rd Battalion, 6th
Marine Regiment and 1st Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment,
Dec. 3-11, 2015, aboard Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. The
experiment was designed to evaluate a proposal to improve
how direct support artillery can support dispersed forces.
The construct of the infantry was a company landing
team, an idea based on a battalion landing team. A battalion
landing team is comprised of three or more infantry
companies that make up the ground combat element of an
expeditionary fighting force, along
with multiple other platoon level enablers. An
artillery battery falls under the GCE, which supports the
BLT with indirect fire.
Marines with 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, engage an opposing force during a limited objective experiment at Camp Lejeune, N.C., Dec. 10, 2015. The Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory worked with 3rd. Bn, 6th Marines, and 1st Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment, to test artillery and infantry integration tactics. During the experiment, the company landing team attacked from near the Onslow Beach landing site towards the objective of the Military Operation in Urban Terrain training center. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Michael Dye) |
The experiment broke down the BLT into three company landing
teams. Each CLT was assigned an artillery platoon of two
weapons from the battery. To best examine the concept, three
types of artillery weapons were used that offered distinctly
different characteristics.
“The concept of what we
are trying to accomplish out here is how we are going to
employ and integrate artillery elements in direct support of
an infantry company landing team,” said Capt. Jay Dodge, the
artillery training school director for 10th Regiment and the
lead artillery planner for the experiment. “We are now
testing a shift from the traditional way of fighting
artillery and infantry, by providing a direct support
artillery element to the infantry.”
This operational
concept is designed to find ways to make infantry and
artillery a more versatile fighting force in any
environment.
“This is the first time we've done a
live-force experiment using this concept,” said Capt. Jerald
Feehery, a project officer for MCWL/FD. “What we are testing
right now is what tactics,
techniques and procedures we can draw, and
incorporate them into the Fleet Marine Forces and how to
make it possible.”
The experiment allowed for an
artillery platoon to be in direct support of an infantry
company. Normally, an artillery battery is in direct support
to a BLT. The experiment also let the artillery platoon
experiment with different
howitzer systems in order to evaluate potentially useful
weapons for this type of integration.
Three different
types of weapon systems were used while conducting the
experiment: The M777A2 155mm howitzer, the M327 120mm
mortar, and the Army's M119A3 105mm howitzer.
Integrating these two fighting forces in theory is an easy
task; however throughout the week, MCWL/FD found several
challenges that proved otherwise.
“One of the
challenges was the equipment, such as the Army's M119A3
howitzer, is not something the Marine Corps uses, so
operating the equipment effectively was difficult for the
artillery guys, however they did an exceptional job,” said
Maj. David Klomp, an Australian exchange officer and the
Head of Plans for the Experiment Division of MCWL/FD. “This
is just a small snap-shot of how we might integrate the
artillery into infantry company landing teams, and it is
very challenging knowing that there are several different
ways to conduct operations.”
Although the tactics
used do not follow any current standard operating procedures
in the Marine Corps, MCWL/FD personnel provided guidance
which allowed them to gather the information and data needed
to formulate new tactics
techniques and procedures for
the Marine Corps to evaluate.
“For the young Marines
and sailors out here supporting this [experiment], I think
it's great for them to be able to break out of their normal
routine of doing things,” Dodge said. “All of them really
did do a great job.”
More photos available below
By U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Michael Dye
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2016
The U.S. Marines
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