Goodbye, tanks: How the Marine Corps will change, and what it will lose, by ditching its armor
Todd South
March 22 at 3:44 PM
One year ago, the top Marine announced the first Âofficial steps of a major Marine Corps overhaul to shift to a ÂNavy-centric warfighting role that would see many changes.
The most noticeable? The elimination of Marine tanks.
And the Corps moved fast. By summer 2020, the Âhulking behemoths of ground combat were being loaded on train cars and rolling away from the storied 1st Tank Battalion at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat ÂCenter at Twentynine Palms, California. Other Âinventories soon followed. And by the end of 2020, an official Marine Corps message allowed both armor officers and enlisted to end their contracts a year early.
At the time of the initial overhaul announcement, the Corps had 452 tanks at its disposal. By December 2020, 323 had been transferred to the Army. The Âremaining tanks were scheduled for transfer by 2023, which included tanks in overseas storage and aboard maritime prepositioning ships, according to Marine Corps Systems Command.
https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2021/03/22/goodbye-tanks-how-the-marine-corps-will-change-and-what-it-will-lose-by-ditching-its-armor/
