– Marine Corps Times – Marine Commandant Gen. Joseph Dunford’s new planning guidance places renewed emphasis on the need for a high-speed amphibious troop transport that can swim ashore without the assistance of a Navy connector.

– War is Boring – While most of the Pentagon’s attention remains focused on the Middle East, the U.S. Marine Corps is expanding its presence in Central America. A new task force – Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force-Crisis Response-Southern Command – will soon be ready to help out American allies during disasters and other crises.

Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force-Crisis Response-Southern Command

– Marine Corps Times – The Marine Corps has canceled plans to deactivate three infantry battalions and a regimental headquarters amid growing need for manpower within the service’s deployed crisis-response units.

– Marine Corps Times – The Marine Corps is refining its new concept of operations — Expeditionary Force 21 — as it begins to apply the new doctrine to real-world missions and large-scale military exercises.

– National Defense – As Congress gears up to consider military funding requests for 2016, the Marine Corps is likely to argue that under the current budget law, its forces are being cut too precipitously.

– Stars and Stripes – The U.S. military wants to establish a permanent presence of up to 3,000 Marines at a Spanish air base that now serves as a temporary host for a task force of crisis-response troops supporting U.S. Africa Command.

– Marine Corps Times – The V-22 Osprey is getting topped-off with a new capability. An aerial refuelling system is being developed for the tilt-rotor aircraft, turning the cargo and personnel carrier into a tanker that can provide fuel to other aircraft, mid-flight.

– Janes’ – The US Marine Corps (USMC) has received its first carrier variant (CV) Lockheed Martin F-35C Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF).

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – By breaking down the Marine Air-Ground Task Force into individual components that can be arranged and combined depending on the situation at hand, the service can better tailor any response.

– Aviation Week – The US Marine Corps is changing the way it plans to use its Lockheed Martin F-35B short take-off, vertical landing fighters. Briefly, the new concept of operations envisages the use of mobile forward arming and refueling points (M-Farps) to support groups of F-35Bs, which would return to U.S. Navy amphbious warfare ships, allied carriers (special mention to the British Queen Elizabeth class) or even regional land bases for routine maintenance.

– Marine Corps Times – The service rivalry between infantry Marines, or grunts, and support Marines, sometimes called “persons other than grunts” or “POGs” for short, is a ubiquitous part of Marine Corps culture. It’s fed by grunts’ pride in their elite training and dangerous work — and the perception that support Marines enjoy better living conditions and easier work, particularly when deployed to combat zones.

– National Defense – The Marine Corps spent $3.5 billion and 25 years developing an amphibious assault vehicle that can skim on top of the water at high speeds. Even though four of its attempts floundered, the service has not given up on creating a vehicle with that capability.

– US Marines – Bold Alligator Wargame Goes Off-Script, On Purpose – 17 warships and two submarines. Thousands of personnel from 19 countries. Billions of dollars of high-tech hardware. Months of planning. But sometimes you still have to improvise.

– CNN – Half of all U.S. Marine Corps units at their home bases are below the levels of required readiness, according to the new commandant of the Marine Corps.

– Marine Corps Times – A special operations company from MARSOC will launch from Navy ships and augment larger Marine missions at Bold Alligator this year as the Corps embraces a concept that has elite forces and fleet Marines working in tandem.

– Navy Times – Exercise Bold Alligator 2014 is poised to take on an array of humanitarian, crisis response and contingency operations in new and unusual ways.

– Marine Corps Times – Marines with a Spain-based task force were some of the first U.S. troops dispatched to West Africa to help combat the spread of Ebola, and since arriving in early October they’ve been kept busy laying the foundation for what’s expected to become a large-scale, long-term humanitarian mission. The Marine Corps force in Liberia numbers about 100 personnel and includes four MV-22B Ospreys and two KC-130J Super Hercules cargo airplanes. They’re being used primarily for aerial site surveys, reconnaissance and to transport senior U.S and African officials.

– Forbes – When General Joseph F. Dunford became the 36th Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps at a ceremony in Washington last week, he inherited a dilemma that predecessor James Amos struggled with throughout his four-year tenure. Superficially, it’s a question about what kind of amphibious combat vehicles the service should be buying. In reality, it’s a debate about the future of the Marine Corps. Having organized its combat units for rapid response and forcible entry from the sea, the Corps faces a growing challenge in sustaining its core amphibious-warfare mission due to shrinking budgets and the increasingly sophisticated defenses of littoral adversaries.

– Defense Tech – The Marine Corps is conducting ground, humidity and endurance testing on its new CH-53K Super Stallion heavy lift helicopter slated to fly next year.

– USNI News – The U.S. Marine Corps will phase out the Boeing AV-8B Harrier II jump jet by 2025 — about five years earlier than planned — and will instead extend the life of its fleet of aging Boeing F/A-18 Hornet strike fighters.

– FoxtrotAlpha – The USMC’s biggest exercise of the year is underway off the coast of Virginia. Bold Alligator ’14 brings together a wide array of Marine and Naval capabilities, along with those of other services and international partners. But this year’s exercise is unlike 2012’s; instead of a traditional beach assault, players will be stepping into the unknown.

– Marine Corps Times – Marines in Afghanistan handed over the Corps’ last remaining base there to Afghan National Army troops Sunday, marking the official end of the service’s primary work in support of the war.

– Bloomberg – A Marine Corps quick-reaction force in the Middle East for missions such as embassy evacuations and humanitarian aid will be fully manned by Nov. 1, according to the general behind the unit’s expansion.

– Marine Corps Times – New equipment being developed by the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab is tailor-made to fit inside the service’s most expeditionary aircraft — the MV-22B Osprey.

– Defense News – US Marine Corps’ officials told reporters they are very focused on sea basing, particularly as a means of dealing with the “anti-access, area denial” problem.