By Michael J. Lostumbo
The U.S. needs to rethink the way it defines the contribution the Marines make to its rebalance.
For years Congress has been asking the Department of Defense (DoD) and the U.S. Marine Corps for a complete implementation plan with detailed costs and a strategic rationale to justify moving roughly 5,000 Marines from Okinawa to Guam. The congressional Government Accountability Office recently found, again, that the Marine Corps cost estimate for the move is “not reliable” and, in the 2014 Department of Defense authorization bill, Congress has again asked for strategic justification and credible cost estimates. The option to permanently base Marines on Guam should hinge on the benefits of the location and the costs. Guam scores poorly on both counts and better options exist. However, previous guidance provided to the Marine Corps constrains consideration of such options.
Operational considerations should weigh heavily in Marine Corps location decisions for large, permanent overseas bases. Specifically, these considerations should include the degree to which they facilitate deployment to likely contingency locations and the opportunities they offer for training. Guam scores poorly on providing these benefits. While it might seem that Marines based in the Pacific can get to an Asian contingency more quickly than Marines from Camp Pendleton in California, only forward-based Marines with dedicated sealift provided by collocated ships have a deployment advantage over U.S.-based forces; it takes a combination of Marines and appropriate transportation to generate response value. If Marines are based on a Pacific island without dedicated lift, the time to position the transport ships erodes any speed advantage that might be gained by the forward location. In such a case, the deployment time from the west coast of the United States would be similar to the deployment time from Guam for Asian contingencies. If prepositioned equipment were used instead, then again the deployment time would be similar whether Marines have to be fly from Guam or from the United States to marry up with the equipment. Similar arguments apply to security cooperation oriented training deployments.
Read the full story at The Diplomat