OMFTS: Lineage and Implications.
Abstract
The modern amphibious doctrine conceived by the Marine Corps in the 1930s is an inspirational example of how difficult strategic and operational problems can yield to innovation. The doctrine was designed to provide a solution to a tactical problem that was an adjunct to a specific naval problem --how to advance the fleet across the Pacific against an array of actual and potential enemy forward bases. Since the advent of nuclear weapons, precision-guided munitions, advanced mines and sensors, and tactical ballistic missiles, the difficulties facing an amphibious fleet have accumulated but have been offset by breakthrough advances in aerospace technology which have had the effect of shifting the focus of amphibious operations to the operational level of war. Technology appears to be giving us the means to strike directly at our opponent's center of gravity, even if it is well inland and out of reach by any traditional measure. This has truly revolutionary implications, and it seems possible that we are already taking the first steps toward learning how to win wars without armies as the main mechanism of victory.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 20, 1997
- Accession Number
- ADA328267
Entities
People
- George P. Garrett
Organizations
- Naval War College