– BBC – Australia has agreed to host a full US Marine task force in the coming years, Prime Minister Julia Gillard has announced at a news conference with US President Barack Obama in Canberra.

More information at the New York Times

– San Diego Union Tribune – After a five-day operation in one of the most combative areas of Afghanistan, international forces have secured the main road from Sangin to the strategic Kajaki Dam in northern Helmand province, Marine commanders announced.

– Associated Press – About 3,000 U.S. and Filipino marines started two weeks of annual military drills in the Philippines on Monday that will include a hostile beach assault exercise near the disputed Spratly Islands.

– Defense Technology International – The F-35B short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing Joint Strike Fighter has taken a step forward in its testing program today with the first landing onboard the USS Wasp, a Marine Corps amphibious ship, in preparation for shipboard trials.

– San Diego Union Tribune – As the Marines celebrate a century of shared aviation history with the Navy at the annual air show in San Diego beginning today, they are also looking to the future amid a high-stakes overhaul of their fleet.

– Associated Press – The dominant narrative about war in a foreign land says its practitioners yearn for home, for the families, the comforts, and the luxury of no longer worrying about imminent death or injury. It applies to young American troops in Afghan combat zones, but it’s not the whole truth.

– Defense Technology International – Bill Sweetman on how the Marine propaganda offensive in support of the F-35B pounds relentlessly on the advantages of short take off and vertical landing.

– Wall Street Journal – The service’s top officer plots a post-Afghanistan focus in the Pacific region, where Marines experienced their most devastating losses and most heroic victories.

– Wall Street Journal – Faced with a wave of mental-health problems among returning troops, the Corps is training young Marines—down to corporals and sergeants—to sniff out combat stress among their peers on the front lines and tackle it directly on the field of battle.

– Armed Forces Journal – Losing the EFV doesn’t jeopardize the Marines’ future.

– San Diego Union Tribune – After 10 years of acting as America’s second land army, the U.S. Marine Corps will be slimmed down to “middleweight” fighter status, its leader says.

– Associated Press – The cacophony of gunfire and bombing that dominated this southern river valley in the fall has dropped to a whisper, but U.S. Marines who have paid a heavy price battling the Taliban in Afghanistan’s deadliest spot expect the insurgents to hit back hard.

– Defense Technology International – The Marine Corps Force Structure Review Group reported to Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday of last week, and Gates endorsed its conclusions.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – It’s time for the Marine Corps to examine its role across the broad expanse of national strategy rather than the narrow focus of a single-purpose mission.

– New York Times – CJ Chivers shares video of a Marine ambush in Afghanistan.

– Washington Post – The backroom congressional battle over Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates’s plan to eliminate the Marine Corps’ multibillion-dollar amphibious Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle will be fought out at the same time as the Corps wrestles with how to shrink its forces.

– Washington Post – A long-troubled $14 billion program to build a landing craft for the Marine Corps is destined for the chopping block, defense officials and analysts said Wednesday, part of $100 billion in savings that Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has pledged to squeeze from the Pentagon’s budget.

– Defense Technology International – On December 11, the Navy and Marine Corps kicked off Bold Alligator, a simulation that marks the largest joint fleet simulated amphibious exercise in the last 10 years. Brig. Gen. Christopher S. Owens of the II Marine Expeditionary Force, the Marine component of Exercise Bold Alligator, said in a conference call last week that while it’s the first brigade-level amphibious exercise in quite some time, “it’s also a first step in our revitalization of our amphibious proficiency with larger or brigade-size units” after a decade of kicking sand.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – As adversaries and weapons grow more advanced, amphibious doctrine must evolve, and the Navy—Marine Corps team must keep the blade sharpened for sea-to-shore capabilities.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – With its ability to work across the seams of other services’ domains and its value in the all-important littoral sphere, the Marine Corps remains as relevant as ever in the 21st century.

– Armed Forces Journal – The F-35B will give the Marine Corps unprecedented basing options.

– Associated Press – The Marines patrolling through the green fields and tall mud compounds of Helmand province’s Sangin district say they are literally in a race for their lives. They are trying to adjust their tactics to outwit Taliban fighters, who have killed more coalition troops here than in any other Afghan district this year.

– Defense Technology International – Bill Sweetman asks if the F-35B – and, by extension, Marine tactical aviation – at risk?

– San Diego Union Tribune – The new commandant of the Corps is calling on Marines to prepare for a future of increasingly irregular warfare by shaping themselves into a lighter, more agile and flexible force ready to be the “first to fight” or respond to a broad spectrum of missions, from heavy combat to humanitarian assistance.

– Los Angeles Times – It is a familiar pattern for Marines serving in Helmand province, a stronghold of the Taliban in southern Afghanistan. Their initial pushes into areas controlled by insurgents have been met with heavy resistance, including small arms fire, ambushes, and lethal improvised bomb attacks.