The Navy has four VTC squadrons. When an aviator sees a designation containing the letter T, visions of orange and white (or blue and white) training aircraft come to mind. The “T” (in VTC-22, for example) is for “tactical,” however—tactical air control squadrons (TACRons). A better designator might be “VAC” to reflect the air control mission and eliminate confusion. The distinction is not just academic, though, because VTC squadrons are classified as “operational-training” (OP-T) assignments for officers rather than “operational” ones at Navy Personnel Command. Training squadrons are incredibly valuable, but they do not serve in operational roles. This has implications for which officers are assigned to VTCs and how their careers progress.
Despite the OP-T classification, OpNavInst 4650.17A designates TACRons as “unusually arduous sea duty.” This helps explain why TACRon commanding officers (COs) wear the command-at-sea pin—because TACRons are in fact (if not by classification) operational commands. Over the past 40-plus years, TACRons have been undertasked and underemployed because fighting has mostly taken place in a low-intensity conflict world. As a result, TACRons have not been resourced like a high-end fight asset. With the shift to peer competition, however, the Navy should recognize the resources and changes to career management necessary to recapitalize TACRons and retain their best people.
What a TACRon Is
TACRons support amphibious squadrons (PhibRons) on board LHA/D-class amphibious assault ships. TACRons provide command-and-control detachments to enable expeditionary air operations planning, coordination, and execution to sustain amphibious ready group/Marine expeditionary unit (ARG/MEU) teams. TACRon air controllers are the voices behind “Ice Pack” and “Green Crown,” keeping aviators safe outside the airspace controlled by the ship while providing information to complete the mission and return safely to the ship.
Green Crown watchstanders are operations specialist–rated (OS-rated) and are trained and designated as air-intercept controllers (AICs), supervisor AICs, or sea-combat air controllers; they are the first to identify friend from foe. Ice Pack watchstanders are air traffic controller–rated sailors who provide further mission tasking and orientation within the ships’ control areas. They are the operators who deploy over the horizon to support peacekeeping and combat operations.
TACRon sailors are a critical link in the challenging shift from blue-water to brown-water operations in an amphibious fight. As forces flow ashore, the communication link from ship to aircraft is key to ensuring mission success because this transition truly cuts across all warfare commanders’ activities and is not limited to the air control realm.
These tasks are not much changed since tactical air control squadrons began to evolve in World War II. As the brief online history of my squadron (VTC-22) describes it:
TACRON came to be in the Pacific and the Aleutian Campaign of 1943. In . . . May of that year, the first Air Support Control Unit (ASCU) afloat was employed. Operating from USS Pennsylvania (BB-38), close air support missions were controlled by this unit during the amphibious phase of the operation. . . . Control units were not officially established and drew personnel for each campaign from amphibious staffs. When the war in the Pacific ended, the air support organization had grown to 24 ASCUs comprising nearly 2,300 officers and enlisted personnel commanded by a rear admiral.
The TACRon role began in an improvised way, but by the end of the largest war in history, it was too important to continue to be run in such an ad hoc manner.
Ready for the Next Fight
TACRons today are expeditionary, built for a fight with a peer adversary, and a critical link in the Navy–Marine Corps team that coordinate fires and flights to keep aircraft on mission and out of harm’s way. With the deployment of the Common Aviation Command and Control System on a growing number of L-class ships, that role has increased in importance. This system will increase situational awareness, and well-trained sailors must be ready to process the higher volume of information that will come with fighting an adversary that possesses sophisticated aircraft and air defenses—a high-end fight.
As expeditionary advanced base operations and distributed maritime operations become the norm and air superiority becomes a thing of the past, the importance of a close relationship between sailors and Marines in and out of ARGs and MEUs will only increase. The Marine Corps has been forward-thinking about the blue-green team. On the Navy side, the TACRon community has been leading naval integration, and its operations specialists’ role is expanding. The tactics, techniques, and procedures for the new F-35B Lightning II aircraft call for more and better-qualified support than AV-8B Harriers needed.
The ongoing development of “Lightning carriers”—big-deck amphibious ships being used as light aircraft carriers—also leads to an increased role for TACRons. This new category of operations will need sailors fluent in “Marine aviation” to support their missions. TACRons can capitalize on decades of experience working with Marine Corps aviators and aircraft to hit the ground running.
TACRons support more than Marines—East Coast–based TACRon sailors and Marines participate in semi-annual exercises with Naval Special Warfare teams. During the most recent Exercise Trident, a TACRon planned with and controlled aircraft from every service within the Department of Defense.
VTC-21 sailors went ashore in Jordan with their Marine Corps counterparts during a 2021 deployment with the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group (ARG). Other TACRon sailors embarked on amphibious ships visited the South China and Baltic Seas, operating near China and Russia.
A recent VTC-22 deployment to Sixth Fleet with the Kearsarge ARG and 22d MEU is a testament to the tactical prowess and professionalism of TACRon sailors. This ARG/MEU of more than 3,000 sailors and Marines participated in six NATO, multinational, and bilateral exercises. When the three-ship ARG disaggregated and operated simultaneously in the Baltic and Mediterranean Seas, TACRon sailors in the Baltic provided critical safety-of-flight information to both areas in real-time despite the vast physical distances involved. This level of operational planning will be every bit as critical in a conflict with a peer adversary.
Long-Term Thinking
Aviators are detailed to TACRons at specific points in their careers, but, for most, the detailing is a short-term parenthesis. The first opportunity is for a disassociated sea tour as a senior lieutenant. The next opportunity is for a board-screened department head tour, or to fulfill O-4 sea duty requirements after having served as an operational-training department head. Last, those officers slated for command serve approximately 15 months as executive officers before assuming command. In nearly every case, even executive officers and commanding officers, the first assignment to a TACRon is the only assignment to one. This leads to many officers arriving for their TACRon tour with little more than two years to become an expert, train the next group, and move on permanently.
Despite the overall fairness of promotion boards, TACRon officers have difficulty being promoted, particularly for higher ranks. In TACRon, as in so many other communities, the Navy needs to preserve today’s experience and talent so they will be here for the next major conflict. Without professional and enduring expeditionary tactical air-control experience, the Navy could fall behind its adversaries, making it more vulnerable in future conflicts. Leaders need to recognize the value the community adds and reward it.
It is difficult to imagine any other aviation squadron operating this way. How effective would the strike-fighter community be if none of the department heads, executive officers, or commanding officers had ever seen an F/A-18 until they reported for that tour?
A good partial solution would be to introduce a 50/50 system of officer detailing—approximately half the officer billets filled by aviators with previous TACRon experience (possibly by acquiring a TACRon additional qualification designator [AQD] during a first TACRon tour) and half pulled from a pool of non-TACRon experienced officers to develop the pipeline. Ideally, this split would be achieved at each billet delineation: commanding officer/executive officer, department head, and a combination of the disassociated sea tour and post OP-T department head. The tactical air-control group commodore and deputies should also follow the half-and-half model. Ideally, this change would be associated with a redesignation away from OP-T to make officers more competitive for promotion later and thereby encourage junior officers who like the community to stay.
So where does the Navy go from here?
• Start with an honest assessment of the value TACRons bring to the future, high-end fight
• Change how officer waterfalls flow in the selection process
• Retain TACRon talent within the community, particularly in senior positions at the squadrons, through policies, plans, and procedures developed in the O-6-led Tactical Group One Model Manager
• Establish an AQD that would be a prerequisite for some billets
• Redesignate TACRons as operational commands
TACRon sailors deploy as operational warfighters specifically trained for the kind of high-end fight that has become the armed forces’ focus again. How the Navy views and values TACRons and their mission needs to change. The best way to do that is to reward and retain its best-trained sailors.