Focus - Full Spectrum Rotary Wing Seapower EABO and You: Seahawks, Marines, and the Familiar Future of Expeditionary Warfare By LT Cory R. Poudrier, USN
T
he MH-60R settled into darkness on its final landing of the night. As the crew went through the newly familiar confined area landing (CAL) calls, it weighed on their minds just how dark the jungle really was. They’d been flying these night sorties for 4 days now, hopping from one hand-cut LZ to another, greeted by the same team of Marines who had been supporting these ops for months. They were far from their forward arming and refueling point (FARP), but with the new fuel bags and sheer manpower, the combined Navy/USMC support element had been keeping them resupplied with food, shelter, fuel, and sonobuoys without fail every night. As the crew sat with their Marine comms team uploading their post flight data, it started to really feel like deployment. Settling into their cots, "alone and unafraid" suddenly didn’t feel so alone.
Integrating for Success
In the last few years, the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) and the Commandant of the Marine Corps (CMC) and his staff have published a number of interesting concepts. Beginning with “Littoral Operations in a Contested Environment,” (LOCE)1, there has been a call for creativity to tackle unique problems in the 7th Fleet Area of Responsibility (AOR): how can the Navy and Marine Corps redesign the way we integrate at sea to achieve sea denial from the littorals? From this charge came Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations (EABO). While EABO may seem like another new buzzword, the rotary wing community is in a unique position to collaborate with
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the Marines while they develop their new tactics, techniques, and procedures, (TTPs) in this effort. EABO concepts of operations (CONOPS)2 are in their infancy, and HSM and HSC have an opportunity to demonstrate our expeditionary and integrated expertise. What do Sierras and Romeos bring to the fight? The same things we bring to the Air Wing. The persistent surveillance and ASW presence of the MH-60R, combined with the combat SOF insertion and logistics capabilities of the MH60S, provide the EABO with organic intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR), ASW, command and control (C2), and self-support. With the aid of USMC ground teams, already proficient in operating in austere, hostile environments, the MH60R/S Team provides battlespace awareness that is agile, low profile, and low cost. While CMC’s discussion on EABO focuses on establishing FARPs with runways, primarily to refuel and rearm F-35 or P-8s3, utilizing MH60R as a sensor platform reduces fuel requirements, ground support requirements, and eliminates the need for a runway. H-60 Teams simply need a clearing. MH-60S can provide movement and logistics to SOF and USMC ground support elements in seizing and establishing new landing zones. Once established, USMC ground support, already familiar with calling for fires overland, can utilize MH60R sensor cueing to direct their HIMARS4 and other assets in support of the highend maritime fight. The MH-60R, supported by MH-60S and USMC logistics, can maintain a mission agile forward position that can plug into the theatre ASW and EW picture as well5.
