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Military Sentinel, Camp Pendleton, California – Marines with the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit stood up two separate forward operating sites simultaneously during a recent training exercise near Camp Pendleton, evaluating whether the unit can track vessels at sea, run combat operations, and keep aircraft armed and fueled from multiple locations at once rather than a single centralized base.
Two Sites, One Fight
The first site functioned as a sensing outpost. Marines from Battalion Landing Team 2/4 paired coastal surveillance radars and electronic sensors with small drones. When radar picked up a surface contact in nearby sea lanes, drone operators launched their aircraft to visually confirm the vessel and pass imagery and coordinates back to the MEU commander.
“We pull those grids, capture the imagery, and send that critical data directly back to the MEU commander,” said Sgt. Javier Guzman Granados, a drone operator with the battalion. Marines involved noted that because ships are constantly moving, the tracking data has to move quickly before a contact drifts out of range.
A second site, located miles away, combined a forward command element with a forward arming and refueling point (FARP). That command post linked the two forward bases, a Navy operations center offshore, and aircraft overhead, while the adjacent refueling point let helicopters and other aircraft rearm without returning to a ship or main base.
“Forward arming and refueling points minimize the time aircraft spend out of the fight and maximize their time in the air,” said Sgt. Cody Quittner, a bulk fuel specialist with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 364.
Logistics Strain Exposed
Running both sites concurrently forced planners to split logistics, transportation, and security personnel across two locations instead of massing them at one. Quittner said the exercise underscored just how much manpower and equipment it takes to stand up even a single site, let alone two operating in parallel.
“One of the major takeaways from this training evolution is the sheer number of moving parts required to establish a site and deliver that capability,” he said.
Background: Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations
The exercise is the latest iteration of the Marine Corps’ Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations (EABO) concept, introduced in 2019 as part of the service’s broader Force Design overhaul. EABO envisions small, mobile Marine units operating from austere, temporary sites ashore to extend the Navy’s sensing and strike reach in contested waters — an alternative to large-scale amphibious landings, and one shaped with a potential Indo-Pacific conflict in mind.
The 13th MEU has rehearsed earlier versions of this training before, including a 2022 iteration at San Clemente Island that used the RQ-20B Puma and Shield AI’s V-BAT drones to build a maritime picture for the unit and its Navy counterparts.
Strategic Implications
Distributed, dual-site operations like this one test the logistical backbone that EABO depends on — sensors, drones, and refueling infrastructure spread across multiple austere locations rather than concentrated at a single hardened base. As 1st Lt. Joseph Nameth, a platoon commander with Battalion Landing Team 2/4, put it: “Connecting the land and sea is where the Marine Corps makes our money.”
With the Marine Corps continuing to refine EABO doctrine ahead of potential contested-environment scenarios, exercises like this one — and the logistics gaps they expose — are likely to shape how future Marine littoral forces are trained, equipped, and sized for real-world deployment.
Suggested category: News / Maritime Security
Suggested internal links:
- Marine Corps Force Design overhaul and Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations concept
- Shield AI V-BAT drone capabilities and deployments
- U.S. Marine littoral operations in the Indo-Pacific
