USMC Infantry Only?
 

USMC dumping just about everything but Infantry?

I can understand the services all need some sliming but this doesn't sound right.

Might as well just become the amphibious branch of the Army.

The Army is short on 19Ks- I wonder if the USMC will sign off on some conditional releases. :munchin

Assume a Pacific mission to seize man made islands in the South China Sea ...
what force structure do you need. Tanks are definitely not on the list.

Of course, seizing instead of "destroying" may not be the optimum goal anyway.

If the linked WSJ article is accurate, it actually looks like the USMC will slightly reduce the number of infantry battalions, significantly cut artillery, and zero out armor and bridging companies to plus up their missile/rocket forces and UAV units.

Marines Plan to Retool to Meet China Threat

Still plenty of future objectives in other parts of the world where they still might have to go in heavy?

We need two land oriented 'Armies' like we need a hole in the head.

This change has been debated for some time now, and if you read all the estimates on why they are doing this it is actually pretty amazing that any organization of that size can self-initiate a change of this size.

They don’t think ANY of their current Amphib capability is now survivable, and are focusing on what they need to do to support naval maneuver....which is their original job. Island hopping in WWII wasn’t to control more Japanese terrain, it was to allow the navy to operate closer and closer to The Japanese mainland and control more of the sea.

With war changing, the Marines have realized the way they are going to do this has to change, and have slaughtered some sacred cows in doing so. I’ll see if I can find some links that better explain what they’re after here.....but the changes were way bigger than ditching tanks.

Really interesting, thanks for the explanation. I’m very interested in orgs that initiate their own creative destruction.

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I know at the lowest levels the USMC continue to be quite innovative.

I’m waiting to see someone have the courage to experiment with what the dismounted infantry rifleman protects and supports besides the machine gun.

Marine Maker is a pretty cool initiative.

Hearing rumours about REF/AWG.