FUTURE OF THE MARINES: Forces to Undergo Transformative Changes

摘要

As the Pentagon looks to shift its warfighting strategies to fight near-peer competitors Russia and China, the Marine Corps is planning to revamp its force structure to prepare for operations in the Indo-Pacific region. In March, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger released a report detailing his force structure plan titled, "Force Design 2030." The long-awaited blueprint focuses on divesting some of the service's legacy capabilities and reducing infantry battalions and tanks to make way for new systems. Future fights will also require the use of smaller, more affordable amphibious ships, the report said. "I am convinced that the defining attributes of our current force design are no longer what the nation requires of the Marine Corps," Berger said in the report. "Our current force design, optimized for large-scale amphibious forcible entry and sustained operations ashore, has persisted unchanged in its essential inspiration since the 1950s." Dakota Wood, a senior research fellow for defense programs at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, said the service underwent a similar large-scale change in the 1930s and 1940s with the publication of the "Small Wars Manual and Tentative Manual for Landing Operations." As Japan began expanding its presence in Asia, with moves such as conquering Manchuria, the service adjusted its warfighting strategies to focus on amphibious operations.