Preparing for Peer-Level Conflict: Update on US Marine Corps Programmes

摘要

The US Marine Corps (USMC) is completely deemphasizing counter-terrorism operations, which have been the focal point of acquisition programmes and mission readiness over the last two decades. The central theme of the current US National Defense Strategy and service planning guidance is that the Corps must be organized, trained and equipped for a higher-end fight with Russia and China, with special emphasis on the Indo-Pacific. The 2030 version of the USMC being shaped in planning documents and acquisition programmes at the Pentagon will require significant changes in the next nine fiscal years' plans. The major story involving this service is the sweeping materiel transformation being eyed across its portfolio. Marine Corps Commandant, Gen David Berger, provided a high-level insight into the major restructuring occurring within the service when he noted in this March's Force Design 2030 report "we must divest certain existing capabilities and capacities to free resources for essential new capabilities." While various well-known legacy systems are being retired from the service's tables of allowance, all is not doom and gloom for industry, as the following selective overview of developments makes clear.