– USNI News – In an aggressive move to reclaim its maritime expeditionary heritage after 13 years of grinding land-based combat and counterinsurgency/nation-building, the Marine Corps has published a new capstone conceptual document that charts a new course into the future.

– Stars and Stripes – The high-tech training exercise — “Large Scale Exercise 2014” — integrated troops on the ground, Marines in simulators and virtual forces, as part of the Marine Corps’ aggressive 10-year plan to prepare units to deploy anywhere, anytime.

– Marine Corps Times – Longer deployments are becoming increasingly necessary for the Marine Expeditionary Units and crisis response units. Deployment extensions for them are not unusual.

– War is Boring – AV-8B Harrier jump jets belonging to the U.S. Marine Corps’ 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit are flying surveillance missions over Islamic State forces in northern Iraq, according to the crew of the Navy warship that carries the compact fighter-bombers in the Persian Gulf.

– Army Times – The Marine Corps is preparing to dispatch its second task force designed specifically for crisis response — this time to the Middle East in order to position for rapid response in that part of the world.

– Marine Corps Times – As the 13-year counter-insurgency campaign winds down in Afghanistan, Marines are quickly shifting attention to readiness for potential large-scale contingencies, often in not-so-subtle hat tips to regions ripe for instability — like the South China Sea, Ukraine and the Russian-annexed Crimea, and the now incredibly violent swath stretching between Iraq and Syria.

– War is Boring – The U.S. Marine Corps expands its Scandinavian arms stockpile.

– Time – Navy SEALs and commandos with Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command are among a cadre of troops working from the Navy’s new ship, the USS Independence, this month as part of the 2014 Rim of the Pacific military exercise off the coast of Hawaii.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – In a new strategic environment, the Marines’ ability to expeditiously get people and equipment ashore may be more important than ever. Emerging platforms and technologies promise to be game-changers.

– National Defense – Not only does the Marine Corps plan to buy a wheeled vehicle to replace its aging ship-to-shore personnel carriers, but senior leaders are now convinced that wheels are superior to the tracked vehicle that the Corps unsuccessfully spent $3 billion over a quarter of a century to develop.

– National Defense – Marines are coming to grips with the reality that they will not have the big-ticket hardware that they had hoped for. So they are adjusting their plans and strategies with the knowledge that they will have to live with existing equipment and lower-cost alternatives.

– Defense News – The US Marine Corps is putting a hard cap on the amount of money it wants to invest in upgrading parts of its aging fleet of AAV7A1 amphibious assault vehicles (AAVs), which the Corps wanted to retire but now plans on driving until the mid-2030s.

– War is Boring – The Pentagon needs new sea-surface ‘connectors,’ but can’t—or won’t—develop them.

– Marine Corps Times – A mobile Army could encroach on Marine turf – with sailors in the middle.

– San Diego Union Tribune – Taliban fighters in remote villages of Helmand province who thought coalition troops would wait out the end of their campaign from the relative safety of regional headquarters got a wake-up call last month. The Twentynine Palms-based infantry unit serving as a regional security force launched a series of attacks targeting insurgent havens in outlying areas.

– Stars and Stripes – Although officials insisted the annual multinational Eager Lion exercise that ended here Sunday was unrelated to sectarian violence across Jordan’s borders, regional tensions nonetheless affected the course of the two-week exercise.

– Stars and Stripes – Analysts and some military leaders have questioned whether the US Army’s Pacific Pathways initiative will duplicate Marines’ skills and assets and is a “solution in search of a problem.”

– War is Boring – The Pentagon has sent Marines and warplanes to Italy because of a possible crisis brewing in North Africa. The troops left their base in Spain after receiving a request from the State Department.

– USNI News – Sikorsky Aircraft rolled out the U.S. Marine Corps’ first CH-53K King Stallion heavy lift helicopter. Though the new K-model shares the same numerical designation as previous CH-53 helicopters, it is in fact a new clean-sheet design.

– Aviation Week – Ever since the F-35B short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) version of the Joint Strike Fighter first flew in the hands of BAE Systems’ test pilot Graham Tomlinson in June 2008 we have heard plenty about the easy and precise nature of the jet’s controllability. Commenting about STOVL operations in particular, pilots tend to focus on the ‘push button’ ease of vertical landings compared to the Harrier and the unusual (until you get used to it) ‘walnuts in a blender’ sound that comes from the lift fan. However virtually everything we have heard so far has been from seasoned military or industry test pilots who were involved in the development and evaluation of the F-35B, or leading instructor pilots assigned to initial training. But now that an increasing number of regular U.S. Marine Corps squadron pilots are flying the F-35B at MCAS Yuma, Arizona, with VMFA-121, what do they think?

– Marine Corps Times – Approximately seven months after wrapping up a deployment at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, members of Fighter Attack Squadron 122 found themselves back in Japan, the latest sign of the increasingly quick turnarounds being asked of F/A-18 and other aircraft squadrons across the service.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – With end-strength numbers reduced and budgets slashed, the Navy–Marine Corps team must cultivate innovative ways to maintain vital capabilities.

– War is Boring – The Pentagon is sending more Marines and warplanes to join its emergency response group in Spain. The additions show the growing importance of smaller task forces in an era of shrinking defense budgets.

– San Diego Union Tribune – Top Marine sounds off on women infantry, warfighter legacy, budget pain.

– Aviation Week – A look at a flight aboard an MV-22 Osprey.