ABSTRACT
Expeditionary warfare consists of military operations on land that are exclusively or primarily initiated, supported and supplied from the sea. It is largely the responsibility of marines, naval infantry, or army units transported by ship, and is supported by fleet units, naval aviation and other strike assets (such as landattack cruise missiles), and-based on situational factors-land-based combat aviation. Amphibious warfare is a significant subset of expeditionary warfare, and prior
to the 1990s was the preferred American term for naval expeditionary operations. It was the United States Marine Corps (USMC) that resurrected the term expeditionary warfare to describe the naval character of their land operations and their greater reach inland, particularly in those intervention situations where an actual amphibious assault was not required (almost all). While USMC operations in such places as Somalia, Lebanon and Haiti were largely supported (and the Marines transported) from the sea, only in the case of Grenada was an amphibious assault (somewhat loosely defined) required. Since the development of nuclear weapons in the 1940s, critics (primarily the US Air Force) have proclaimed the death of amphibious warfare. And although this argument was discredited by Douglas MacArthur’s landing at Inchon and the ‘amphibious feint’ of Operation Desert Storm, prudence-motivated by the perennial Service struggles for resources-dictated the USMC’s change in terminology. In short, expeditionary warfare is more than amphibious warfare, but amphibious operations remain its keel. Although a fairly new term for the USA, many other nations-especially the
United Kingdom-have used ‘expedition’ to describe overseas military intervention, particularly during the era of colonialism. Yet, the concept of expeditionary warfare is actually millenniums older and is in fact the oldest form of naval warfare. The 1,000 ship expedition to conquer Troy-as described in Homer’s Illiad and Odyssey, arguably the oldest Western literature-conducted no combat at sea, but rather transported forces for combat ashore, and, once pulled up on the beach, became the focus of Trojan counterattacks. Not only did Troy not have a fleet to contest the Mycenaean Greeks (or, at least, not according to Homer), naval technology had not yet advanced to the point where ships could actually fight each other under way. Expeditionary warfare-affecting events ashorewas not simply the primary purpose, but was the sole purpose of the navies of that time (c. 1200 BC and before).
