CALL THE MARITIME CAVALRY: MARINE CORPS MODERNIZATION AND THE STAND-IN FORCE
ADAM YANG
SEPTEMBER 13, 2022
Genghis Khan and Napoleon Bonaparte used cavalry units and combined arms to wreak havoc in Europe and Eurasia long before debates about the future of the Marines Corps and maneuver warfare. Today, the Marine Corps can also apply these time-tested tactics to develop a “maritime cavalry” and provide an essential maneuver element that complements the latest joint force capabilities and fighting concepts. Perhaps more importantly, creating a maritime cavalry would add a dynamic combined-arms element to the Marine Corps’ latest Force Design 2030 formations and concepts while channeling its “first to fight” ethos.
Cavalry units operate across wide areas and great distances and serve as the eyes and ears of a field commander. Their central feature is the ability to provide friendly forces with exceptional mobility and firepower against enemy weaknesses at the right place and the right time. For doctrinal reference, the U.S. War Department’s 1941 Cavalry Field Manual describes their historic and enduring missions as offensive combat, defensive combat, reconnaissance, counter-reconnaissance, and security.
Like traditional ground cavalry, a maritime cavalry should be able to attack, pursue, harass, raid, and break through enemy formations in littoral spaces. Their flexibility would allow them to sow chaos and confusion as needed and exploit friendly successes in other areas of the battlespace. For defense, they could help protect friendly forces on islands or at sea with modified screening, guarding, covering, and delaying actions. They could occupy key maritime chokepoints until a larger fleet arrives. For reconnaissance, they could probe enemy defenses on remote islands or waterways and act as live sensors. Such a maritime cavalry must be organically mobile and capable of offensive action to serve as a commander’s arm of shock and firepower and real-time information gathering.
https://warontherocks.com/2022/09/call-the-maritime-cavalry-marine-corps-modernization-and-the-stand-in-force/
