To Remain Relevant the Marines Must Adapt to a Changing World
By Walter Boomer & James Conway , Anthony Zinni
September 04, 2024
U.S. Marine Corps
Marines stop and salute the ensign as they embark onto amphibious assault ship USS Wasp in preparation for a crisis response exercise. Coalition forces are conducting a crisis response exercise Nov. 1-7 to enhance their capabilities to respond to a host nation's request for assistance during a time of crisis.
As remarkable as it sounds, the United States Marine Corps is currently organized and equipped for the wrong mission. The Service, once renowned for its offensive mantra as “first to fight”, has become too focused on defending against the highly unlikely scenario in which the Chinese navy projects from the South China Sea to engage U.S. forces and seize control of the Pacific and beyond. To meet this potential threat, the Marines embraced a new operating concept called “Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations” (EABO) and significantly altered Marine Corps force structure and capabilities by implementing a supporting plan called “Force Design 2030” (now called simply “Force Design”).
The intent of Force Design was to convert existing Marine infantry and artillery formations into small, mobile, self-sufficient missile-equipped units spread across the Pacific Ocean’s first island chain through which the Chinese Navy ships must transit on their way to points east, south and north. It must be noted that these dispersed units are themselves unlikely to contribute in any meaningful way to prevent a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, which is considered by planners as both the most likely and most dangerous course of action available to China.
If China elects to strike U.S. bases in Japan, Guam and Hawaii to support the attack against Taiwan, they could use land based missiles fired from Chinese territory and allow the Chinese air force and navy to concentrate on seizing and then defending Taiwan while remaining outside the range of Marine missile batteries.
Before proceeding, it’s worth reviewing why the Marines shifted their main focus from a global, offensive force-in-readiness to a regional, defense force-in-waiting.
https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2024/09/04/to_remain_relevant_the_marines_must_adapt_to_a_changing_world_1055976.html
