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Allocating Marine Expeditionary Unit Equipment to Minimize Shortfalls Third Edition

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Allocating Marine Expeditionary Unit Equipment to Minimize Shortfalls Third Edition Allocating Marine Expeditionary Unit Equipment to Minimize Shortfalls Third Edition Walter L. Perry, Anthony Atler, Roald Euller, Angel R. Martinez, Todd Nichols, Jonathan Welch C O R P O R A T I O N For more information on this publication, visit www.rand.org/t/TL167 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available for this publication. ISBN: 978-0-8330-8883-3 Published by the RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, Calif. © Copyright 2015 RAND Corporation R® is a registered trademark. Cover image: U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Michael Petersheim Limited Print and Electronic Distribution Rights This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited. Permission is given to duplicate this document for personal use only, as long as it is unaltered and complete. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial use. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.html. The RAND Corporation is a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous. RAND is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and committed to the public interest. RAND’s publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors. Support RAND Make a tax-deductible charitable contribution at www.rand.org/giving/contribute www.rand.org Preface For various reasons explored in this report, including the command- er’s priorities and expected mission requirements, the Marine Corps’ amphibious lift requirements—that is, the space that Marine Corps units need to transport the equipment they expect to use to complete tasks associated with a given mission—may exceed the lift capacity of an Amphibious Ready Group. For this reason, Marine Expeditionary Units (MEUs) afloat generally do not embark all of the equipment assigned to their subordinate units. What is the impact of this short- fall on the MEU’s ability to complete the tasks associated with the mission—especially when the mission includes reconstruction and stabilization operations? In general, MEUs do not fail because of the equipment shortfalls; Marine Corps commanders are able to make use of the equipment they have in innovative and creative ways to complete the tasks at hand. However, equipment shortfalls do force shortcuts and sometimes sacrifice the quality and speed of task completion. This report describes the development of an automated tool aimed at allo- cating equipment to achieve the various tasks associated with MEU missions. The purpose is to highlight the equipment implications asso- ciated with completing these tasks. This report is the third edition of a previously published report. Additional missions were added and the tool was modified to improve its performance and accuracy. This research was sponsored by the Marine Corps Combat Devel- opment Command and conducted within the International Security and Defense Policy Center of the RAND National Defense Research Institute, a federally funded research and development center spon- iii iv Allocating Marine Expeditionary Unit Equipment to Minimize Shortfalls sored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, the -Uni fied Combatant Commands, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the defense agencies, and the defense Intelligence Community. For more information on RAND’s International Security and Defense Policy Center, see http://www.rand.org/nsrd/ndri/centers/ isdp.html or contact the director (contact information is provided on the web page). Contents Preface ............................................................................. iii Summary .........................................................................xiii Acknowledgments ............................................................xxvii CHAPTER ONE Introduction ....................................................................... 1 Research Objective ................................................................. 2 Approach ............................................................................ 4 The Complete Mission Set ........................................................ 5 Mission Deconstruction ........................................................... 6 Challenges .......................................................................... 9 Limitations .........................................................................10 About This Report ...............................................................11 CHAPTER TWO MEU Organization and Operations .........................................13 The Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) ...............................13 ARG Composition and Simultaneous Missions ...............................17 MEU Operational Planning .....................................................17 CHAPTER THREE Common Tasks ...................................................................19 Plan the Mission...................................................................21 Establish Command Center(s) ...................................................21 Clear Roads and Areas .......................................................... 22 Conduct Reconnaissance ........................................................ 22 v vi Allocating Marine Expeditionary Unit Equipment to Minimize Shortfalls Control the Population .......................................................... 23 Assemble and Transport Evacuees ............................................. 24 Conduct Force Protection Operations ......................................... 24 Transition to Host-Nation Control .............................................25 Conduct Withdrawal .............................................................25 CHAPTER FOUR Linkages: Equipment, Tasks, Metrics, and Planning Factors .......... 27 From Missions to Tasks, Subtasks, and Military Activities ................. 28 Linking Equipment to Tasks, Subtasks, and Activities .......................35 Prioritizing Equipment Based on Contribution ...............................37 Relative Task Importance ....................................................... 38 Fungibility .........................................................................39 Limitations ........................................................................ 40 CHAPTER FIVE The MAGTF Equipment Structural Assessment (MESA) Application ...................................................................41 The MESA Process ................................................................41 Application Overview ........................................................... 42 Application Inputs ............................................................... 44 Equipment Allocation Process ...................................................47 Application Outputs ..............................................................49 Conclusion ........................................................................ 54 CHAPTER SIX Stress Test .........................................................................55 Situation ...........................................................................55 Equipment Sets ....................................................................57 Description of Cases ..............................................................59 Testing the Cases ................................................................. 60 CHAPTER SEVEN Conclusions .......................................................................69 Lessons Learned ...................................................................70 Next Steps and Challenges .......................................................75 Contents vii APPENDIXES A. Mission Deconstructions .................................................. 77 B. MESA User’s Guide ........................................................ 117 C. Stress Test Tutorial......................................................... 155 Abbreviations ................................................................... 179 Bibliography .................................................................... 183 Figures S.1. Main Screen of the MESA Application ..........................xx 2.1. MEU Organizational Structure ....................................14 2.2. Ships of the ARG ....................................................16 5.1. The MESA Process ..................................................41 5.2. Main Screen of the MESA Application ......................... 43 5.3. Mission and Task Selection Screen ................................45 5.4. Selecting Location of Equipment Inventories ................... 48 5.5. Review Scenario Display ............................................49 5.6. Score Scenario Display ............................................. 50 5.7. Score Equipment Display ...........................................51 5.8. Save to Excel Output ................................................52 5.9. Save to Excel Graphical Output ...................................53 6.1. Stress Test Operational Environment ............................ 56 6.2. Shortfall Results ......................................................62 6.3. Effect of a Second Mission on Mission Capability ..............63 6.4. Effect of ARG Composition on Mission Capability ...........
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