Early Experiments are Proving Out Tank-Free Marine Corps Concept
By: Megan Eckstein
February 10, 2021 5:40 PM
U.S. Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Sean Goode, an infantry unit leader with 3d Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, observes a training area at Combined Arms Training Center, Camp Fuji, Japan on Jan. 22, 2021. US Marine Corps Photo
Ongoing testing and experimentation are proving the Marine Corps can be more lethal even while being lighter and more maneuverable, as the service evolves to support littoral operations under its Force Design 2030 plan, a top general said today.
Lt. Gen. Eric Smith, the deputy commandant for combat development and integration, today described how the Marine Corps’ evolution over the next couple years would allow for a small group of 75 Marines to pose such a great threat that the adversary would have to divert resources to find and counter them.
These groups of 75 Marines, already located in the first island chain in the Pacific and relying on their own organic aircraft and surface ships for mobility, “[will begin] to have an effect on the adversary’s ability to fully track where everyone is. In the past, you would think, ‘well there’s 75 Marines in location X, they’re not a threat.’ If I can sink one of your billion-and-a-half-dollar warships with a one-and-a-half-million-dollar missile, I am a threat. And that may change the calculus, if I can do that and rapidly move using things like our Joint Light Tactical Vehicle and make it incredibly hard for you to find me, both in the electromagnetic spectrum and physically on the ground because of my mobility. You have to respect that very small unit of which we will have dozens and dozens and dozens placed strategically throughout,†he said while speaking at the International Armoured Vehicles Conference, hosted by Defence IQ.
https://news.usni.org/2021/02/10/early-experiments-are-proving-out-tank-free-marine-corps-concept#more-83406
