The Marines’ Hub-Spoke Strategy: The Importance of U.S.-Australian Military Cooperation
In a recent discussion with Lieutenant Colonel Lauren Serrano, a plans officer with the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing (3rd MAW), we discussed the Marines’ hub-spoke-node concept for operations in the Indo-Pacific region and how U.S.-Australian military cooperation was a key part of the Marine Corps approach and an important element of the way ahead for Australian defence as well.
As a plans officer at 3rd MAW, she has been focused in her past two years on Marine Corps operations in the Indo-Pacific and on the evolving working relationships with the Philippines and Australia.
LtCol Serrano described how 3rd MAW’s hub-spoke-node concept is means to maintain aviation capabilities across Southeast Asia. The strategy involves distributing Marine aviation assets across a wide area, with Australia serving as a primary hub due to its greater sanctuary from potential threats.
She noted: “Our partners in that region understand that hub-spoke-node will help not just 3rd MAW and U.S. forces, but it helps our allies and partners as well,” Serrano explained that distributed facilities in the region can be used by partner and allied forces, not exclusively by U.S. forces.”
The sustainment challenge is significant for a distributed force.
How to ensure that supplies are accessible at the right time and place?
And how to ensure these supplies can be moved to the deployed forces operating in an area of interest?
We spent most of our time focused on the evolving U.S. and Australian relationship. What interested me most in the conversation is how she highlighted concrete ways the Marines during their rotational engagement each year in Australia were working with the Australian Defence Force (ADF) on how to evolve effective interactive concepts of operations and effective use of locations in the support of distributed operations.
A key advantage of developing capabilities in Australia is gaining operational depth beyond Guam, which Serrano described as “saturated” and primarily focused on Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) operations.
“Not only do we need the operational depth, though, we need the dispersion,” Serrano emphasized. “And we need different locations coming from different corridors.” This approach reduces vulnerability by avoiding concentration of forces at a single location.
I have been going to Australia since 2014 and write the seminar reports for the twice-yearly Sir Richard Williams Foundation seminars which highlight the evolution of ADF thinking about their way ahead. In recent years, not surprisingly, the ADF has been focused upon how to distribute its force more effectively in its Northern Territory from which to project force but also to protect the extended perimeter of Australian defence.
In that context, the RAAF has been working its version of distributed operations and thinking through how to operate from more austere locations on Australian soil.
For example, in a 2023 discussion I had with the Air Commander Australia, Air Vice-Marshal Goldie, he underscored the following: “We need to focus on how we can design our force to manoeuvre effectively using our own territory as the chessboard.”
What LtCol Serrano highlighted was how the Marines with their long history of working agile basing, FARPS, and the like were working closely with the ADF on just that task. And how to move C2 and supplies around the Australian chessboard is not only crucial for Australian defense but for how the Marines can operate with the ADF from Australia itself.
She noted: “Of all of the U.S. military services, the Marine Corps is best postured to do bare-based operations because we’re the most expeditionary and have experience working in austere environments.”
The Marines are exploring with the ADF more austere, expeditionary bases at various locations from which airpower could be generated. Part of the way ahead is the build-up of new support structure for the U.S. forces to operate with the ADF from Australia and in conjunction with the ADF to defend the extended perimeter of Australian defense.
The Australian Defense Force and USMC have mutually agreed to pre-position materials in what are called Global Positioning Network (GPN) sites, essentially stockpiles of maintenance items, tools, and supplies necessary to maintain operations. As part of this global network, the Marine Corps Prepositioning Program enables Marines to respond quickly in times of crisis across the Indo-Pacific, maintaining and preparing prepositioned equipment, much of which is tailored for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR).
In my view, clearly both countries face severe logistical shortfalls and fiscal constraints that make it difficult to build adequate supply networks. The operational geometry makes sense, but the challenge is to make sure we have the capability in place with the fiscal shortfalls that both countries face.
Collaboration between the USMC and the ADF is one way to shape more effective “supply nodes” for both forces, but funding and building supply capabilities is crucial. And in my view, the potential for Australian defence industry to build for allied and Australian forces to provide a supply network is one way ahead that must be seriously considered.
When I first went to Australia in 2014, it was to continue my work on the F-35 global enterprise. Now of course, the Australians are key plank holders in the enterprise and the last two PACAF Commanders when addressing the Sir Richard Williams Foundation seminars have underscored that the RAAF working with the USAF on F-35s have become not just interoperable but increasingly interchangeable.
What LtCol Serrano underscored was how the Marines were becoming a key part of this effort as well, leveraging their experience operating the F-35B and F-35C models.
“We have trained with them in the past to build interoperability so that our pilots from Third MAW can go to Australia and fly the F-35As with the Australians,” Serrano explained. This arrangement benefits both countries by getting more aircraft in the air while reducing the need to transport U.S. aircraft across the Pacific for training exercises.
In 2023, VMFA-314 deployed with F-35Cs to Williamtown. Last year, VMFA-214 with F-35Bs deployed to the Northern Territory where the commanding officer and executive officer both flew Australian F-35As. Additionally, U.S. refuelers were certified to service both variants of aircraft, and maintenance teams conducted subject matter expert exchanges.
In short, the promise of the F-35 global enterprise which I first saw in 2014 is now becoming reality and the need to continue this effort is more significant than ever.
Back in 2014, I met with then Commander, MARFORPAC LtGen Robling, under whom the ADF engagement of the Marines in Australia began.
This is what he said in a 2014 interview at his office in Hawaii:
“You need places to train the MAGTF within the Pacific. This means ranges large enough to train all of the elements of the MAGTF in a combined setting across the full range of military options. These are hard to find.
“Australia affords us with ranges where we can do that type of training. While training in Australia on a rotational basis, we use the dry season when the terrain is viable for mobility, and we will rotate them out during the wet season to other areas in the Pacific when it is impossible to train or move due to terrain saturation or flooding.”
“Amphibious ships will be a key element to the Australian working environment. Due to Australian agricultural, quarantine and inspection requirements, it will be more cost effective in both time and money to preposition some equipment ashore but have equipment on the amphibious ships we can use to train in other areas of the Pacific, and avoid the necessary restrictions.”
Those restrictions remain and are part of the reason if one expands the ADF and Marine Corps working relationship, new approaches are needed as well.
As both nations work to strengthen their defense relationship, several initiatives are showing promise:
- Continuing to expand F-35 interoperability.
- Exploring expanded possibilities for U.S. aircraft in Australia.
- Developing more detailed joint planning for operations within Australia.
- Discussing more austere, expeditionary training opportunities in Australia.
And 3rd MAW is a key player in this effort with the ADF.
As MajGen Wellons, the 3rd MAW Commander underscored the importance of the working relationship with the Aussies:
“I recently attended the Avalon International Airshow and had the privilege of engaging with key leaders across the ADF and RAAF. And I can tell you, strong relationships are everything. The shared values, mutual understanding, and aligned objectives we have with the Aussies is crucial – we are in lockstep as we foster opportunities for successful, creative combined training.
“Whether a U.S. Marine pilot is in a RAAF F-35A cockpit, or a RAAF maintainer is quite literally turning wrenches on our Bs or Cs, we are finding ways to maximize tangible best practices. We also have a shared appetite for enhanced integrated command and control capabilities, and for more effectively codified communities of practice to support our F-35 interoperability and interchangeability.
“As we nest our actions with INDOPACOM posture and guidance, I’m confident the elements of the US-AUS alliance that we touch, will continue to advance.”
Featured photo: A U.S. Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II aircraft with Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 214, Marine Aircraft Group 13, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, taxis to the runway armed with a Royal Australian Air Force GBU-12 Paveway II laser-guided bomb at RAAF Base Tindal, Northern Territory, Australia, June 26, 2024. U.S. Marines with VMFA-214 and RAAF aviators with No. 75 Squadron loaded RAAF ordnance onto USMC F-35Bs during bilateral training, exhibiting interchangeability between RAAF and U.S. Marine aviation. VMFA-214 deployed more than 200 Marines and eight F-35B Lightning II aircraft from Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona, to RAAF Base Tindal, Australia, to conduct bilateral training with the RAAF No. 3 Squadron and No. 75 Squadron. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Nicholas Johnson).