The Marine Corps went all in when the Pentagon identified China as the prime national- security challenge facing the U.S.
To meet it, the Marines in 2020 proclaimed a thoroughgoing transformation. Under “Force Design 2030,” the Corps would do away with its tanks, make other cuts and devote fewer resources for its long-held mission as the nation’s premier crisis-response force. Instead, the focus would be on China, with small teams of missile-toting Marines hopping from island to island in the Western Pacific to attack the Chinese fleet in a conflict.
The effort, however, is raising questions about how ready the Marines are to handle unanticipated threats in an increasingly disorderly world.
As fighting rages in Gaza and Iranian-backed forces lob missiles at U.S. troops and commercial shipping in the region, a Marine expeditionary unit is now floating in the Red Sea, a sign of how the Middle East has forced itself back on the Pentagon agenda.
Corps leaders defend the changes, insisting the leaner but more modern force being fielded can handle the full array of missions. But the Marines’ new vision provoked unease among some senior officers—one of whom fired off a classified memo arguing that the plan went too far—and set off opposition from retired Marine generals
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-marines-transformed-to-take-on-china-will-they-be-ready-for-everything-else/ar-AA1m81Qt
