Tag Archives: Littoral Operations in a Contested Environment

How to Seize Islands, Set Up a Forward Refueling Point: Marine Corps Recipes for Expeditionary Operations

How to Seize Islands, Set Up a Forward Refueling Point: Marine Corps Recipes for Expeditionary Operations

A Marine with Echo Company, Battalion Landing Team, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, posts security during a simulated airfield seizure after a long-range raid from the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp (LHD 1) at Ie Shima Training Facility, Okinawa, Japan, Aug. 12, 2019. US Marine Corps photo.

The U.S. Marine Corps has been refining a pair of related concepts, Expeditionary Advance Base Operations (EABO) and the overarching Littoral Operations in a Contested Environment, for the past couple years. Read More

New Commandant Berger Sheds 38-Amphib Requirement in Quest to Modernize USMC for High-End Fight

New Commandant Berger Sheds 38-Amphib Requirement in Quest to Modernize USMC for High-End Fight

U.S. Marine Corps AAV-P7/A1 assault amphibious vehicles assigned to Combat Assault Company, 3rd Marine Regiment, unload service members during an amphibious landing demonstration as part of Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise at Pyramid Rock Beach on Marine Corps Base Hawaii July 29, 2018. US Marine Corps photo.

New Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. David Berger outlined his largely naval priorities for the Marine Corps, and he’s willing to shed some key tenets of the Marines’ amphibious force planning in recent years – including the demand for 38 amphibious warships to support a 2 Marine Expeditionary Brigade-sized forcible entry force. Read More

New High-End Amphibious Warfare Tactics Tested at BALTOPS 2019

New High-End Amphibious Warfare Tactics Tested at BALTOPS 2019

Marines assigned to 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (22 MEU) establish communications with the Polish Lubin-class mine layer-landing ship ORP Gniezno during exercise Baltic Operations (BALTOPS) 2019 on June 16, 2019. US Navy Photo

ABOARD USS MOUNT WHITNEY, IN THE BALTIC SEA – Amphibious forces in BALTOPS 2019 tested out new, high-end tactics for the first time in a live exercise, working in a less-rigid structure that allows enablers like air-defense or anti-submarine ships, mine clearance teams and artillery units to flow through the operating area to where they can do the most good. Read More

Lt. Gen. David Berger Nominated as Next Marine Corps Commandant

Lt. Gen. David Berger Nominated as Next Marine Corps Commandant

Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Robert B. Neller, left, speaks to Lt. Gen. David H. Berger before a change of command at Marine Corps Base Hawaii on Aug. 8, 2018. US Marine Corps Photo

This post has been updated to include the official annoucement from the Marine Corps.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A key architect of the Marine’s future fight in an era of great power competition was tapped Tuesday to be the next commandant of the Marine Corps, according to a Congressional notification. Read More

Pacific Blitz Tests How Navy, Marines Could Fight the Next Island Campaign

Pacific Blitz Tests How Navy, Marines Could Fight the Next Island Campaign

Construction Electrician Constructionman George Feldman, assigned to Naval Construction Battalion 5 (NMCB-5), mans a .50-caliber machine gun while standing security watch on Marine Corps Camp Pendleton, Calif., in support of Exercise Pacific Blitz 2019 on March 12, 2019. US Navy Photo

This post has been updated to add additional ships that participated in the exercise.

As amphibious exercise Pacific Blitz 2019 wraps up today, senior commanders already are reviewing after-action lessons and thinking ahead to future exercises that will help develop, train and prepare forces for fights on the move and close to shore. Read More

Marines' Next High-End Fight Could Call for Larger Formations, Tougher Amphibs

Marines’ Next High-End Fight Could Call for Larger Formations, Tougher Amphibs

U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jose Nieves, an infantryman with 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division tests Step In Visor and Low Profile Mandible during Urban Advanced Naval Technology Exercise 2018 (ANTX-18) at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, March 21, 2018. US Marine Corps photo.

ARLINGTON, Va. – The Marine Corps is preparing for a high-end distributed fight inside island chains in the Pacific, and the service is pushing the Navy to invest in additional weapons and systems for amphibious ships to support this kind of battle in a contested environment. Read More

Marines to Focus Investments on New Concepts, New Systems for the Future Fight

Marines to Focus Investments on New Concepts, New Systems for the Future Fight

A U.S. Marine with Company C, Battalion Landing Team, 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, provides security for an 81mm mortar section while conducting an airfield seizure on San Clemente Island, California, as part of expeditionary advanced base operations training, Oct. 23, 2017, during Exercise Dawn Blitz. US Marine Corps photo.

MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. – Striking the right balance between funding today’s force and funding new capabilities for the future has always been a challenge, but Marine Corps leaders have firmly come down on the side of favoring modernization to win in a future fight. Read More

Marines Won't Need a Carrier for High-End Fight With MUX Unmanned System

Marines Won’t Need a Carrier for High-End Fight With MUX Unmanned System

DARPA demonstrator system of a medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned air system (UAS). DAPRA Image

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. – The Marine Corps and Navy are preparing for a high-end fight that will require ships to be distributed across the ocean rather than clustered around an aircraft carrier, and the Marines’ future Group 5 unmanned aerial system will give them the airborne early warning capability to break free from the carrier and its E-2D Advanced Hawkeye early warning aircraft. Read More

Marine Corps Wants Forces in U.S. Ready to Surge for Major War

Marine Corps Wants Forces in U.S. Ready to Surge for Major War

Marines with Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 367 takes off from Twentynine Palms, Calif. on June 1, 2018. US Marine Corps Photo

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Marine Corps wants to focus its continental U.S.-based forces training for a high-end large-scale war, in case a conflict on the Korean Peninsula or elsewhere requires a massive surge force. Read More