U.S. Marine Corps Expeditionary Warrior 2013: Future Maritime Operations for the 21st Century Operating Environment - Command and Control, Maneuver, Fires, Logistics/Sustainment, Force Protection

Professionally converted for accurate flowing-text e-book format reproduction, this is an important Marine Corps publication about Expeditionary Warrior 2013, the latest iteration of the Marine Corps' Title 10 wargame. It seeks to provide a venue that spurs innovation for the force of the future. This Final Report discusses observations and insights from the EW13 Main Event, which occurred on 25 February-1 March 2013 at The Mason Inn Conference Center and Hotel on the campus of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. The unclassified wargame featured 125 participants representing all five Services of the U.S. Armed Forces, the Joint Staff, Office of the Secretary of Defense, U.S. Special Operations Command and 13 partner nations.
In July 2012, the Deputy Commandant for Combat Development and Integration (DC CD&I) approved a three-year wargaming campaign plan to explore a vision for future maritime operations that leverages forces deployed forward that can gain awareness of the operating environment, act early, and scale the response to the threat or crisis across the range of military operations (ROMO). A draft Future Maritime Operations (FMO) concept paper provided an organizing construct for the wargame. On 26 July 2012, DC CD&I approved the following objective statement for EW13:
Identify concepts, capabilities and capacity solutions required by the Marine Corps and Navy to provide forward presence, yet rapidly build forces for crisis response, for future maritime operations in 2035.
EW13 used a fictional scenario set in 2035 Southeast Asia that presented operational challenges for a distributed joint force conducting engagement across the U.S. Pacific Command area of responsibility. The scenario focuses on the fictional U.S. ally Karta, and the U.S.-led response to protect coalition interests and quell the crisis.
Key Observations - Expanded use of individual and small units in theater security cooperation (TSC) engagements can provide the maritime force better situational awareness, and potentially enable senior political and military leaders with options for proactive, preventive early actions in emerging crises. Risks of early engagement must be considered. Single Naval Battle and littoral maneuver need further study and analysis to identify and develop the required capabilities. Establishing a co-located, integrated Navy-Marine Corps maritime operational staff appears to be a useful first step for the conduct of a coherent naval campaign.