The Marine Corps Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) has made strides towards reaching the goals set forth in Expeditionary Force 21 (EF 21); however, the MEU has also fallen short in other areas and will need to evolve to fulfill the goals envisioned in EF 21, particularly in developing an amphibious landing craft, increasing littoral maneuverability, and engineering new platforms to increase logistical capabilities.
A line of effort in EF 21 was “increasing naval integration” by “strengthen[ing] our partnership with the Navy, Coast Guard, and SOF [Special Operations Forces].”1 In certain aspects the Marine Corps has evolved to strengthen that partnership and an example of this strengthened partnership is the development and use of the USS San Antonio. Although the USS San Antonio was commissioned prior to EF 21, the ship is an example of not only the integration of the Navy and Marine Corps by its design; it also enhanced the command and control (C2) capability with the inclusion of a combat information center, joint intelligence center, and supporting coordination center.2 This increased C2 capability was a focus area of EF 21 and a meets the goal of maintaining C2 even as command structures change and the MEU conducts disaggregated …show more content…
In EF 21, it states “we need to develop a viable combination of connectors, landing craft, amphibious vehicles and boats.”8 Instead of developing the EFV or an alternate amphibious vehicle, the Marines Corps has come to heavily rely on the MV-22, which has speed and distance advantages over amphibious vehicles, but, the MV-22 cannot conduct surface littoral maneuver capabilities, which was a key line of effort for the success envisioned in EF
A line of effort in EF 21 was “increasing naval integration” by “strengthen[ing] our partnership with the Navy, Coast Guard, and SOF [Special Operations Forces].”1 In certain aspects the Marine Corps has evolved to strengthen that partnership and an example of this strengthened partnership is the development and use of the USS San Antonio. Although the USS San Antonio was commissioned prior to EF 21, the ship is an example of not only the integration of the Navy and Marine Corps by its design; it also enhanced the command and control (C2) capability with the inclusion of a combat information center, joint intelligence center, and supporting coordination center.2 This increased C2 capability was a focus area of EF 21 and a meets the goal of maintaining C2 even as command structures change and the MEU conducts disaggregated …show more content…
In EF 21, it states “we need to develop a viable combination of connectors, landing craft, amphibious vehicles and boats.”8 Instead of developing the EFV or an alternate amphibious vehicle, the Marines Corps has come to heavily rely on the MV-22, which has speed and distance advantages over amphibious vehicles, but, the MV-22 cannot conduct surface littoral maneuver capabilities, which was a key line of effort for the success envisioned in EF