CMC Berger Wants to Retool Kit for Leaner, Lethal Marine Corps

USNI News – Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. David Berger previewed a shift in focus for the Marine Corps soon after taking over the job this summer, with his Commandant’s Planning Guidance. Now, he’s previewing what that shift will mean for the gear the Marines use and how they spend their money, writing in an essay in War on the Rocks that the service is over-invested in gear to support traditional land wars and under-invested in naval expeditionary capabilities.

Lessons from a Training Ship

USNI Blog – As a former surface warfare officer, now a civilian pursuing a merchant mariner license, I recently had the opportunity to serve onboard the State University of New York (SUNY) Maritime College’s training ship, the Empire State VI. I was assigned as a deck training officer and lab instructor, but I also received an immersive education in how the Merchant Marine trains its officers and operates its ships.

The Future of Aircraft Carriers: Consider the Air Wing, Not the Platform

CIMSEC – Robert Rubel asks what is it that the air wing, irrespective of the range of its aircraft, is supposed to do? That is a function of the ability of aircraft to penetrate to a launch point, and the ability of the weapons they deliver to achieve the effects needed. A valid discussion of those factors involves much more than just “bombs on target.”