Tag Archives: infantry

Marines Look Beyond LAVs as Recon Roles Expand

Marines Look Beyond LAVs as Recon Roles Expand

Sgt. David Seeley, a squad leader with Battalion Landing Team 3/4, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), and a native of Dunwoody, Georgia, walks past a light armored vehicle (LAV) at Camp Hansen, Okinawa, Japan on Feb. 8, 2021. Marine Corps Photo

Marines are rethinking how the service does reconnaissance beyond its traditional light armored vehicles as part of the ongoing Force Design 2030 effort, officials said last week. Read More

Marines Look to EPFs, ESBs as Interim Solution for Light Amphibious Warship

Marines Look to EPFs, ESBs as Interim Solution for Light Amphibious Warship

Expeditionary fast transport ship USNS Brunswick (T-EPF 6) departs Naval Base Guam, passing the MSC expeditionary fast transport ship USNS Fall River (T-EPF 4) and marking the start of Pacific Partnership 2019. Navy photo

WASHINGTON D.C. — With the Light Amphibious Warship delayed by several years, the Marine Corps is looking to ship classes already in the fleet as an interim solution to move Marines around the Indo-Pacific. Read More

Fewer Marines, More Sensors Part of Berger’s Latest Force Design Revision

Fewer Marines, More Sensors Part of Berger’s Latest Force Design Revision

Marines with 1st Battalion, 2d Marine Regiment (1/2), 2d Marine Division, board a KC-130J Super Hercules at Yuma Proving Grounds, Arizona, April 22, 2022. US Marine Corps Photo

THE PENTAGON – Reducing the Marines to 175,000 and adding more sensor capability to smaller units are part of a wide swath of adjustments the Marine Corps is pursuing in the latest iteration of its modernization drive. Read More

Marines Retooling Infantry Training for Complex Warfare in Pacific

Marines Retooling Infantry Training for Complex Warfare in Pacific

U.S. Marines with Alpha Company, Infantry Training Battalion, School of Infantry – West, take simulated artillery fire during the last event of a five-day capstone exercise for the Infantry Marine Course on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif., on April 30, 2021. US Marine Corps

CAMP PENDLETON, CALIF. — After 20 years of counterinsurgency and low-end conflict in the Middle East, the Marines are rapidly retooling for a different kind of fight. Read More

Marines Update Force Design 2030 After a Year of Experimentation in the Field

Marines Update Force Design 2030 After a Year of Experimentation in the Field

A U.S. Marine with Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 3d Marines, crawls onto the beach during reconnaissance scout swimmer training part of Exercise Bougainville I at Marine Corps Training Area Bellows, Hawaii, Feb. 8, 2021.US Marine Corps Photo

The Marine Corps is a year into reshaping its force to become optimized for modern operations – in combat and in everyday competition – by 2030, and the service has already taken some major steps such as getting rid of all its tanks and refining its vision for how to buy the next reconnaissance vehicle Read More

Marine Infantry Training Shifts From 'Automaton' to Thinkers, as School Adds Chess to the Curriculum

Marine Infantry Training Shifts From ‘Automaton’ to Thinkers, as School Adds Chess to the Curriculum

Infantry Training Battalion instructors play chess in their instructor ready room at School of Infantry-West at Camp Pendleton, Calif. US Marine Corps photo.

The Marine Corps is about to revolutionize infantry training, more than doubling the length of initial training for enlisted infantry Marines and weighing consolidation of its core grunt specialties into a single, all-around infantry warfighter. Read More

Pentagon Task Force Looks to Revamp Close-Combat Infantry Training, Lethality

Pentagon Task Force Looks to Revamp Close-Combat Infantry Training, Lethality

Marines in the Infantry Officer Course fire at an enemy trench during a live fire training exercise at Range 410A aboard the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, Calif., June 9, 2018. US Marine Corps

A Pentagon-directed group tasked with making close-combat infantry more lethal and effective has its sights on getting troops into more realistic, immersive training as soon as possible. Read More

Marine Corps to Prioritize Smaller Frontline Units in Upcoming Budget Plans

Marine Corps to Prioritize Smaller Frontline Units in Upcoming Budget Plans

Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Robert B. Neller, left, speaks with Lance Cpl. Cesar H. Salinas, unmanned aerial system operator, at Twentynine Palms, Calif., July 28, 2016. Neller visited Twentynine Palms to observe Marines participating in the Marine Air-Ground Task Force Integrated Experiment (MIX-16). US Marine Corps photo.

Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Robert B. Neller, left, speaks with Lance Cpl. Cesar H. Salinas, unmanned aerial system operator, at Twentynine Palms, Calif., July 28, 2016. Neller visited Twentynine Palms to observe Marines participating in the Marine Air-Ground Task Force Integrated Experiment (MIX-16). US Marine Corps photo.

This post has been updated to correct the name of the Shoulder-launched Multipurpose Assault Weapon launcher Brig. Gen. Joseph Shrader refers to.

Marine Corps budgets in the coming years may be more focused on the company, platoon and squad levels, with the service trying to empower lower echelons that will operate with more independence in dispersed operations. Read More