– AOL Defense – Saturday saw the formal christening of the USNS Montford Point, the first of a new class of Navy vessel, the Mobile Landing Platform, meant to revolutionize the conduct of amphibious operations. By serving as a kind of floating pier, the MLP allows an amphibious force to offload heavy combat vehicles and bulk supplies at sea, without having to capture a major seaport — which can be a bloody chokepoint in seaborne operations.

– San Diego Union Tribune – The U.S. military spent the last decade fighting entrenched insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan. What will the next war be like? Will it involve desert, mountains or jungle? An enemy who speaks Farsi or Korean? A national army fighting with tanks, or guerillas planting homemade bombs? It is impossible to know. While future wars remain unseen over the horizon and budget woes squeeze the military budget, the Marine Corps is resetting its combat training to get back to the basics and play to its strengths.

– American Conservative – William S. Lind describes what he thinks the US Marines should look like in the future.

– Time – Doug Macgregor takes on the USMC.

– San Diego Union Tribune – Q and A with Gen. James Amos on the future of the Corps.

– UPI – The 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit sailed into the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations, which includes the Persian Gulf, the overall Middle East and eastern Africa. The 15th MEU has about 2,400 troops aboard three transport ships, including the amphibious assault ship USS Peleilu.

– Wall Street Journal – A 4-foot cobra slithered across the patrol’s path. The Marines shrugged—a snake couldn’t blow off their legs.

– Defense News – As the U.S. Marine Corps shifts its focus toward the Asia-Pacific region, the business of lift and logistics also shifts — from the fairly straightforward process of supplying troops in Iraq and Afghanistan to the enormous challenge of operating in a vast hemisphere of oceans and islands.

– Associated Press – The attackers destroyed six Harrier jump jets assigned to Yuma’s Marine Attack Squadron 211 and heavily damaged two others.

– Associated Press – A shipload of MV-22 Ospreys arrived in Japan on Monday amid protests over safety issues that have aggravated longstanding grassroots concern over the presence of American bases in the country.

– San Diego Union Tribune – Much has changed in Sangin since the spring of 2011. The Camp Pendleton unit then deployed to the area, the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, suffered more casualties during its seven-month tour to Sangin than any unit of the entire war.

– New York Times – CJ Chivers on how the Marines are preparing to let women enter infantry training.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – We started doing it 212 years ago. Now that the Marine Corps is going back to sea after a decade on the ground, it’s time to revive the Maritime Raid Force.

– Wall Street Journal – When a suicide bomber struck a convoy in Afghanistan, a routine Marine patrol turned into a harrowing firefight. Michael M. Phillips with an eyewitness account of bravery and tragedy in the confusion of war.

– San Diego Union Tribune – The Marine Corps will begin assigning women to newly opened combat jobs this year, conduct research on their physical capabilities, and in the most striking move, open the infantry officer training course to them, the commandant said in a message to all Marines Monday.

– Washington Post – The U.S. and Japanese governments said Thursday that they will move about 9,000 Marines off Okinawa to other bases in the Western Pacific, in a bid to remove a persistent irritant in the relationship between the two allies.

– BBC – The first contingent of 200 United States Marines has arrived in Darwin. The troops are there on a six-month rotational basis and will take part in training exercises with the Australian Defence Force.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – Even though the threat symmetry may have changed, the Navy-Marine Corps team still needs the capability to insert ground troops from the sea.

– Virginian Pilot – For months, Navy and Marine Corps brass have talked up a massive training exercise with a funny name – Bold Alligator – and a serious objective: revitalizing amphibious warfare.

– San Diego Union Tribune – Camp Pendleton troops will be storming the beaches with Japanese defense forces over the next month, building on long-standing military ties with an important strategic ally in the Asia Pacific amid rising tensions in the region.

– US Naval War College Review – As a grand concept, Sea Basing appears becalmed, if still visible out on the horizon. However, as a practical reality, U.S. forces engage in sea basing today-and every day. The U.S. Marine Corps-along with a sometimes supportive, sometimes reluctant U.S. Navy-is projected to continue to make incremental improvements.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – Forget the EFV. Retrofitted off-the-shelf vessels offer a cost-efficient means to align Marine Corps capabilities with national-security needs.

– Washington Post – With the Iraq war ending and an Afghanistan exit in sight, the Marine Corps is beginning a historic shift, returning to its roots as a seafaring force that will get smaller, lighter and, it hopes, less bogged down in land wars.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – The tiltrotor MV-22 has come of age. Moving larger payloads—faster and farther—it broadens Marine Corps capabilities and gives commanders more choices.

– Marine Times – An official announcement could come within days of Britain’s sale of its remaining Harrier jump jets to the Marine Corps, but sources are saying privately the purchase will be strictly for spare parts and logistic support, and not a move to increase the operational fleet.