Marine: A Guided Tour of a Marine Expeditionary Unit

by Tom Clancy

  The Future: The Lightweight Howitzer and Arsenal Ship

  Solving the problem of replacing the fire-support assets lost since Desert Storm is a joint Navy/Marine Corps challenge. The most urgent fire-support upgrade is replacement of the M198 155mm howitzer. Six different industrial teams have produced competing designs for a new lightweight howitzer. These include United Defense, Lockheed Martin, Royal Ordnance, and VSEL. In addition to lighter weight, the Marines want a weapon with much longer range (which means a longer barrel) and smaller crew requirements, and a higher rate of fire (which means power-assisted ramming and loading.) Expect to see deliveries in the early years of the next century.

  An artist's concept of the proposed "Arsenal Ship." The vessel would be packed with vertical launch cells for missiles that would provide bombardment and fire support for Marines ashore.

  OFFICIAL U.S. NAVY PHOTOFROM LOCKHEED MARTIN

  A bigger problem is offshore fire support. Marines really miss those old Iowa-class (BB-61) battleships. Nothing will ever match the spectacular effect of 16-in./406mm shells falling on a target within 25 mi/40 km of a coastline. Over a hundred ships with 5-in./ 127mm guns have left U.S. Navy service, gutting naval gunfire capability. To make up for this drawdown, the Chief of Navel Operations and former Deputy Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Bill Owens conceived the idea of the Arsenal Ship. The Arsenal Ship would replace the lost firepower of the retired Iowa-class (BB-61) battleships by constructing a simple, relatively inexpensive ship packed with missile launch cells--as many as 732 tactical missiles, including Tomahawk and perhaps a version of the Army TACMS. In effect, the arsenal ship would win the war in one salvo, and then reload for the next war. The ship would rely entirely on off-board sensors for targeting. Covered with radar-absorbing coatings, an Arsenal Ship would have virtually no superstructure. Some design studies envision ballast tanks that could be flooded to give the ship extremely low freeboard, making it a very difficult target for enemy anti-ship missiles. Unfortunately, all this thinking hasn't gone very far; and there are practical problems. Not the least of these: The Navy has done virtually nothing to integrate and procure the TACMS missile for naval service, perhaps because it's reluctant to use an Army missile aboard Navy ships (the "not-invented-here" syndrome). Only nuclear submariners have done substantive work on TACMS, since they are desperately looking for new missions for their subs in the post-Cold War period. Whatever happens, supporting fires will be the make-or-break item for continued forced-entry capabilities into the 21st century.

  Anti-Armor/Aircraft Systems

  Cambrai, Northern France. 0620 hours on November 20th, 1917. In the misty dawn, the soldiers of the Kaiser's 2nd Army looked out over "No-Man's-Land" and saw over two hundred primitive British tanks lumbering toward them. The Germans opened fire with the Mauser rifles and Maxim machine guns that had made them nearly invincible during three long years in the trenches, and watched in horror as the bullets bounced off of the armor plate. Then, surprisingly, and most uncharacteristically for German infantry, they ran away.

  Almost thirty-five years later, near Osan, Korea, on July 5th, 1950, soldiers of the 24th Infantry Division's Task Force Smith had held their roadblock stubbornly for almost five hours against a superior force of invading North Koreans. They were mostly young draftees, but their sergeants were tough World War II combat veterans who knew their business. Then they heard a low rumble that grew to a roar as thirty Russian T-34/85 tanks came down the road. The bazooka teams fired, and watched in horror as the 2.75-in./70mm armor-piercing rockets bounced off the tanks' sharply angled armor plates. Then they did something surprising and uncharacteristic of American infantry. They ran away.

  There is a common lesson in these two stories. Tanks scare the crap out of infantrymen who have no way to fight back effectively. To stand up against tanks, foot soldiers need two things: courage and an anti-tank weapon they trust. Good leadership and training will supply the courage. Good ordnance engineers and technicians can supply the weapons. Early tanks were practically blind on the battlefield, and even the best modern tank designs (like the M1A1 Abrams) are visually handicapped. Men on foot can exploit this weakness with great effect. During the Hungarian Revolution in Budapest (1956), Russian T-34s were knocked out by Hungarian freedom fighters, who immobilized the tanks by jamming steel pipes between the tracks and the road wheels, then bombarded them with firebombs made from bottles and gasoline.

  Modern portable anti-tank weapons fall into two categories: those light enough for one soldier to carry, and specialist weapons that require a crew and possibly a motor vehicle to haul them around. The Marine Corps has usually followed U.S. Army doctrine, equipment, and tactics for anti-armor combat, but has a few ideas of its own. Let's take a quick look at the portable anti-armor systems used by the Corps.

  AT-4

  The Marines have always been willing to acquire foreign-made weapons when they are the best of their breed. The AT-4 was acquired to replace the very light and inexpensive 70mm M72 LAW (Light Anti-tank Weapon), which is increasingly becoming ineffective against modern battle tanks. The AT-4 is a lightweight, single-shot, disposable version of the "Karl Gustav" 84 mm anti-tank launcher manufactured by FFV in Sweden. The AT-4 can be carried and shoulder-fired by one Marine, but is typically employed in the heavy weapons platoon of a rifle company with a two-man fire team. The second Marine serves as a spotter and carries additional AT-4s for the team. Weighing 14.75 lb/6.7 kg, the 40 -in./1.01-m.-long rocket launcher has a nasty back-blast. Maximum effective range is 300 m/984 ft, and the shaped-charge projectile can penetrate 400mm/15.75 in. of armor plate. The FY-96 unit cost is about $1,100 per AT-4 rocket.

  Marines of the 26th MEU (SOC) prepare to fire an SMAW rocket launcher. This Israeli-made weapon is used for bunker-busting and demolitions.

  OFFICIAL U.S. MARINE CORPS PHOTO

  An HMMWV of BLT 2/6 mounting a TOW anti-tank missile launcher on maneuvers in Israel in 1995.

  OFFICIAL U.S. MARINE CORPS PHOTO MARINE CORPS PHOTO

  SMAW

  The Shoulder Launched Multipurpose Assault Weapon (SMAW) is a high-tech descendant of the World War II bazooka--a portable rocket launcher that can disable a tank or knock out a bunker. It was introduced in 1984 as a unique Marine Corps item, because the Army's M72 LAW lacked the accuracy and punch the Marines wanted, and other anti-tank rockets were too heavy. The SMAW is based on an Israeli weapon called the B-300. The 16.6-1b/7.54-kg fiberglass launch tube is 30 in./76 cm long when carried. For firing, you snap a rocket in its disposable sealed canister into the breech end, which extends the total length of the weapon to 54 in./137 cm. The Marines carry 1,364 of these unusual weapons in inventory, and they cost about $14,000.00 each. The SMAW fires two kinds of 83mm rockets--HEDP for use against lightly armored vehicles or buildings, and High-Explosive Anti-tank (HEAT) for use against heavily armored vehicles. Maximum range against a tank is 500 m/1,640 ft, but the SMAW is intended for use at close ranges. Accuracy is ensured by a "spotting rifle" attached to the side of the launcher. This is a British-made 9mm semi-automatic weapon that fires a special tracer round that is ballistically matched to the flight characteristics of the rocket. You hoist the weapon to your shoulder, look through the sight, and fire a spotting round. When you see the spotting round impact on the target, you fire the rocket, with a very high probability of a hit. SMAW works so well that during Desert Storm the Army "borrowed" 150 launchers and five thousand rockets from the Marines.

  ABOVE The Hughes Missile Systems TOW-2A anti-tank missile. The precursor warhead on the extensible probe helps defeat reactive armor. JACK RYAN ENTERPRISES L.T.D., BY LAURA ALPHER

  LEFT: TOW-2B Anti-Tank Missile. JACK RYAN ENTERPRISES, LTD., BY LAURA ALPHER

  Hughes MGM-71 TOW-2 Anti-Tank Missile

  "TOW" stands for "Tube-launched, Optically-tracked, Wire-guided." This famous family of missiles originally entered service in 1970, and has been continuously improved and upgraded through a series of modifications.
TOW first saw combat in 1972 in Vietnam, where it was successfully fired by U.S. Army helicopters against North Vietnamese tanks. In the Marine Corps, TOW is mainly used by specialist anti-tank platoons of heavy weapons companies, mounted on HMMWVs (which carry six missiles), or by anti-tank variants of the eight-wheeled Light Armored Vehicle (LAV-AT, carrying two missiles ready to fire with ten stowed).

  The TOW-2 missile is 3.8 ft/1.2m long, about 6 in./150 mm in diameter, and weighs 65 lb/29.5 kg. There are four spring-loaded, pop-out guidance fins at the tail and four wings at mid-body. Like most anti-tank missiles, TOW has two rocket motors, a small kick motor that ejects the missile from the launch tube, and a sustainer that ignites at a safe distance. An unusual feature on TOW is that the rocket exhaust nozzles are on either side of the missile body, to avoid interference with the fine steel guidance wires that stream out from the tail. TOW launchers can interface with a variety of different sighting and control units, and the Marines are currently acquiring an Improved Target Acquisition System (ITAS) from Texas Instruments, which combines a laser range finder, FLIR (Forward Looking Infrared), modular software, and a rechargeable ten-hour battery. TOW-2A uses a tandem warhead for direct attack, and TOW-2B uses a pair of explosively forged projectile warheads from a top-attack flight profile. Otherwise the two versions are identical. Maximum effective range is 3,75 km/2.3 mi.

  Rockwell International AGM-114 Hellfire

  Hellfire is a long-range high-speed laser-guided missile and it is used exclusively by Marine Cobra attack helicopters, although the U.S. Army and Navy have experimented with firing it from ground vehicles and ships, and Sweden has acquired a coast-defense version fired from a portable tripod mount. Hellfire is primarily an anti-tank missile, with a 20-1b/9-kg dual shaped-charge warhead that can essentially defeat any imaginable tank from any angle. It can also be used successfully against other targets. For example, the opening shots of the 1991 Persian Gulf War were Hellfire missiles fired by Army AH-64 Apache helicopters against Iraqi air defense radar sites.

  Hellfire is a big brute of a missile, measuring over 5 ft/1.625 m long, 7 in./178 mm in diameter, and weighing almost 100 lb/45.3 kg. Maximum range depends on the speed and altitude of the firing aircraft, but 5 mi/8 km is claimed. The solid-propellant rocket motor rapidly accelerates the missile to supersonic speed. The seeker in Hellfire's nose is similar to the seeker of a laser-guided bomb. It is programmed to home on a spot of laser light, pulsing with a particular pre-set code. As far as the missile is concerned, it does not matter who or what is lasing the target. The missile can be programmed to "lock on after launch," enabling the designator to remain hidden until the last few seconds of missile flight. The missile can fly a straight-line (direct-attack), or a "lofted" flight path, which provides extended range and an advantageous "top down" impact angle against an armored target.

  A Marine Stinger SAM team of the 26th MEU (SOC) stands alert on the USS Wasp (LHD-1). Such teams frequently stand watch on U.S. Navy ships to help catch any "leakers" through the ship's air defenses.

  JOHN D. GRESHAM

  The Army's Apaches can "self-designate," but Marine AH-1W Cobras do not presently carry a laser designator. In 1996, though, a Night Targeting System will start entering service with the Cobras. But until these system are installed, the Cobras face a tricky tactical coordination problem. They have to rely on "buddy-lasing," which can be performed by a ground-based forward observer, or a Marine UH-1N helicopter equipped with one of the three surviving Nite Eagle laser-designator packages salvaged from the Army's failed Aquila RPV program. During Desert Storm, Marine Cobras, teamed in tank killing units with these few UH-INs, successfully fired 159 Hellfires. Each Cobra can carry up to eight Hellfires on launch rails attached to its stub wings. In FY-1994, Hellfire had a unit cost of abut $35,000.00

  Hughes MIM-92 Stinger Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM)

  The last time American fighting men had to face an enemy who held air superiority was in 1942 in Tunisia against the German Nazi Luftwaffe and the Fascist Italian Regia Aeronautica. Indeed, the main "air threat" to our ground troops in Vietnam and the 1991 Gulf War were mistaken attacks by "friendly" pilots. Yet, even the most obsolete Third World air force could inflict serious damage on a Marine landing force during the first few critical hours of an operation. While the ground-pounding Marines have great confidence that their brother and sister Marines who fly will be there to help in a pinch, they have always taken the problem of short-range anti-aircraft defense seriously. Each expeditionary Marine unit will normally have an assigned air defense platoon, equipped with the MIM-92 Stinger SAM, which began to replace the much less effective 1960s-vintage Redeye missile in 1982. The platoon includes three HMMWVs, each carrying three-man Stinger teams. The Stinger is sealed in its disposable launch tube at the factory and has a long shelf life. The launch tube clips onto a reusable gripstock assembly, an IFF antenna (this is optional) is attached to the front of the assembly, and the gunner hoists the entire 34-1b/15.4-kg assembly to his shoulder. The gripstock incorporates an audio cueing system, to tell the gunner when the missile seeker is "locked" onto a target. Normally the team will be alerted to the approach of hostile aircraft via radio from a ground-, air-, or ship-based surveillance radar.

  An Avenger SAM vehicle assigned to the 26th MEU (SOC) in Tunisia during 1995. Based on an HMMWV chassis, it is armed with eight Stinger SAMS and a .50-caliber machine gun.

  OFFICIAL U.S. MARINE CORPS PHOTO

  Stinger is 5 ft/1.5 m long, 2.75 in./7 cm in diameter, and weighs 12.5 1b/5.7 kg at launch. Range is highly dependent on the speed and direction of the enemy aircraft, but the official specs are 1 km/.6 mi minimum to 8 km/5 mi maximum. Stinger's seeker has an "all-aspect" engagement capability. This means that it does not need a direct line of sight to the hot metal of the engine exhaust; it is sensitive enough to sense that the aircraft is warmer than the sky behind it. Developed by Hughes Missile Systems, the seeker also incorporate a reprogrammable microprocessor, so that software changes can be rapidly implemented to cope with ever-changing enemy countermeasures.

  In FY-94, the unit cost of a Stinger missile was $38,000.00, and there were 13,431 in the U.S. Marine inventory. Stinger's first taste of combat was with the British Special Air Service Regiment in the 1982 British-Argentine war. A large number of Stingers were also supplied to Afghan freedom fighters during their long war against Soviet occupation; and they proved incredibly effective in the hands of uneducated but highly motivated gunners. Stinger has an impact fuse for direct hits and a proximity fuse that can turn a near miss into a kill by showering the target with fragments. There is also a timed self-destruct, so that live missiles do not come down on the heads of friendly troops.

  The most exciting new Stinger development for the Marines is the Avenger air-defense vehicle. This is integrated by Boeing using the chassis of an HMMWV with a rotating turret that incorporates a FLIR, a laser range finder, an M2 .50-cal. machine gun, and reloadable canisters for eight missiles. A pair of Avengers will be normally be assigned to the Stinger platoon of a MEU (SOC). Combined with the three man-pack teams, it gives the MEU (SOC) a rudimentary air-defense capability. When combined with an offshore SAM umbrella from escorting surface ships, and perhaps the air-to-air capabilities of the MEU (SOC)'s embarked Harrier detachment, it gives the Marines a fighting chance against air attack until follow-on forces arrive to take over the job.

  The Future: Texas Instruments (TI)/Martin Javelin

  Javelin represents a new generation of precision-guided fire-and-forget antitank weapons. The joint Army/Marine Corps program, now in production, began in 1989 under the acronym AAWS-M (Advanced Anti-tank Weapon System--Medium). The Marines will receive a small initial batch (140 missiles) in 1997, and expect to field a full operational capability in the heavy weapons platoon of the rifle company and the heavy weapons company of the battalion by 1999. The joint Army/Marine requirement is 31,269 missiles and 3,541 Command Launch Units through the year 2004, but in the absence of a w
ar, procurement targets rarely survive successive rounds of budget cuts.

  At first glance, what Javelin does seems impossible. "Precision guidance" usually requires a human being in the loop to control the flight of the weapon up to the moment of impact. A good example is the Marines' current portable anti-tank missile, the hated McDonnell Douglas M-47 Dragon, which entered service in the early 1970s. The Dragon gunner, crouched in a awkward and uncomfortable position, must keep the target centered in his telescopic sight during the missile's entire time of flight, as long as twelve seconds out to 1,000 m/1,094 yd. Steering commands travel down twin steel wires that uncoil from bobbins on the missile and the launch tube. If the enemy detects the smoke and flash of the missile launch, he will quickly fire back in the general direction with everything he's got. If the Dragon gunner ducks, or even flinches, the missile will probably fly into the ground or pass harmlessly over the target.