Marines

Revitalize Marine Air Defense

Expeditionary ground Marines will need better assets and training against air threats.

First Lieutenant Karl Flynn, U.S. Marine Corps
February 2022
Signature management is a critical vulnerablity of expeditionary advanced base operations, one the Sea Services should try to overcome with emerging technologies.

To Be Detected Is to Be Killed

Emerging tech can help the Marine Corps overcome the signature challenges of expeditionary advanced bases.

Major Brian Kerg, U.S. Marine Corps
December 2020
The assistant chief of staff (G-4) for Marine Corps Installations Command gives remarks at the Pentagon after his promotion.

Time for a Staff Officer Career Track

The Marine Corps does a poor job identifying good staff officers, the term “staff officer” has a negative connotation, and the service forces every officer onto the command track.

Major Nathan Wood, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve
November 2020
Junior Marines from the Marine Guard Program Enlisted For may lack experience in their primary MOS, but their time with the Marine Security Guard provides them with communication skills, an in-depth understanding of national objectives, and a unique perspective on leadership. They are well-equipped to be extraordinary leaders at the fire-team and squad levels.

MGPEF Marines Have Much to Offer the Infantry

In May 2020, Marine Corps infantry units saw corporals and lance corporals with no experience in their primary military occupational specialty (MOS) outside the School of Infantry enter the operating ...

Sergeant Nathan S. Bolka, U.S Marine Corps
November 2020
Under current plans, the Marine Corps will drop its heavy armor to invest in longer-range missile systems to better support naval campaigns, a move that has drawn some concern.

Designing Tomorrow’s Marine Corps

Force design must be versatile, balanced, risk-informed, and strategy-driven so the Corps is ready for the future.

Lieutenant Colonel Frank Hoffman, USMCR (Ret.)
November 2020
Noncommissioned and junior officers can teach much of the current enlisted professional military education (EPME) curriculum locally, without sending Marines away to resident programs every couple of years.

Fix Enlisted PME

The Marine Corps should teach enlisted leaders to outthink peer enemies.

Sergeant Abraham Cheng, U.S. Marine Corps
November 2020
Small boats, such as the CB90 combat boat built by Dockstavarvet in Sweden, do not have the carrying capacity of larger ships, but their high speed allows them to link fleet logistics ships parked safely outside the weapons engagement zone with stand-in forces.

Sustainment Will Be Contested

The Marine Corps needs robust, clandestine logistical forces to support expeditionary advanced base ops in the Pacific.

November 2020
In the High North or in the western Pacific, Marine expeditionary advanced bases will be part of the effort to find, track, deter, and defeat enemy submarines. Opposite inset, the Russian Yasen-class (Project 885) submarine Severodvinsk gets underway from the Kola Peninsula.

Marines Will Help Fight Submarines

The undersea fight will be critical in future wars, and the Corps must help win those battles.

General David Berger, U.S. Marine Corps
November 2020