USNI News – Up to six U.S Marine Corps MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles will operate from Kadena Air Base in Okinawa for a year to carry out Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions around the southwest region of Japan, according to a Japan Ministry of Defense and Foreign Ministry public explainer document released Tuesday.

USNI News – How to meet the logistics needs of Marines and sailors in an Indo-Pacific conflict is a major question in how the U.S. could fight in the region and one that seasoned logistical leaders within I Marine Expeditionary Force began to tackle during last month’s Valiant Shield exercise.

Defense News – A key vessel Marines need to move around in a potential island shootout with China is two years behind schedule, could cost nearly triple its original estimate and the short-term fix isn’t cheap.

Breaking Defense – Although the tiltrotor aircraft is back in the skies, it’s restricted to flying within 30 minutes of an airfield. And now, a senior official revealed today it likely won’t resume its full mission profile until mid-2025.

Defense News – The Corps’ newest regiment, the ­Marine littoral regiment, combines new drone and sensing tech, anti-aircraft equipment and a ship-sinking missile into one formation — purpose-built to move around the land and sea, ­hopefully going unnoticed so that it can strike when needed, allowing Navy ships to roam freely while thwarting the Chinese military’s access to key terrain and ­maritime choke points.

USNI News – While the long-term future for the amphibious fleet is secured with a Navy commitment to 31 amphibious warships in the Fiscal Year 2025 budget, the short-term problem of getting Marines to sea is less settled.

The War Zone – The USMC is tackling the huge threat posed by unmanned aerial systems in a holistic fashion, where every Marine could play a role.

The War Zone – Software, cockpit, and maintenance improvements are all on the cards, as is a potential optionally piloted configuration.

Breaking Defense – “No matter what theater we talk about – PACOM, Europe – everything needs to be smaller, lighter [and] very modular, so…we can throw it in the back of a pickup truck,” said Col. Devin Licklider, program manager for MAGTF Command & Control.

Defense News – The Houthis have imposed costs on a powerful navy by tracking down ships, threatening them with drones and missiles, and disrupting travel through vital waterways, while lurking near shore. To some observers of the Marine Corps’ modernization plans, that sounds familiar.

The War Zone – The future of the Harvest Hawk armament kit for Marine Corps KC-130J Herculestanker/transport aircraft is facing uncertainty as the service questions whether this capability would be relevant in a future high-end fight. Other new capabilities, like the Intrepid Tiger II electronic warfare system, are on the horizon for Marine KC-130Js, and these aircraft could potentially make use of the Air Force’s Rapid Dragon palletized cruise missile launching system down the line.

Defense News – The Congressional Budget Office expects the Landing Ship Medium program to cost billions of dollars more than the U.S. Navy previously estimated, though the organization noted that ongoing questions about the ship’s role create uncertainty on the final design and cost.

Defense News – The Corps’ top operations general is seeing Pacific allies copy some of the new littoral-based war-fighting concepts that the service’s has developed to counter China in the region.

The War Zone – Pairing Valkyrie drones with F-35B makes perfect sense for future Marine Corps operations, especially in the Pacific.

The War Zone – Marine Operational Test and Evaluation Squadron One will get its first MQ-9s this summer along with a load of new systems and tactics to test.

Breaking Defense – The inclusion of the Medium Landing Ship in the fiscal year 2025 shipbuilding request is a major win for the Marine Corps, which faced significant amphibious shipbuilding cuts last year.

Defense News – The U.S. Marine Corps plans to upgrade systems it already fielded during its Force Design modernization effort, with its fiscal 2025 budget request looking to boost sensing and striking capabilities.

Defense News – The U.S. military will allow its fleet of V-22 Ospreys to fly again, three months after it grounded the entire inventory of more than 400 aircraft following a fatal crash off the coast of Japan in November.

Defense News – The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps will move forward with the existing design of the San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship in fiscal 2025, a top leader said, after the Defense Department last year raised the specter of scaling down the ship’s design or not buying any more at all.

USNI News – The Marine Corps will soon test a prototype logistics supply drone inspired by drug smuggling narco subs.

BBC – Under cover of darkness, a single fighter jet roars as it rips across the deck of the USS Bataan, a vast US assault ship. Moments later, a second jet follows.

War on the Rocks – We are concerned about the quality of thinking, data, analysis, and synthesis that informs the decisions to reorganize the Marine Corps to meet its fundamental statutory obligations. It is because of that concern that we see that Force Design is indeed improving, not diminishing, the effectiveness of the Marine Corps to respond to the crises of today’s and tomorrow’s security environment. The current events impacting modern security challenges are providing empirical evidence to bear that observation out. We anticipate these real-world indicators will positively support the Force Design 2030 decisions when they are included in the congressionally directed report in the coming year.

Defense News – The U.S. Marine Corps is looking more closely at how to leverage alternate ships to keep its forces at sea, amid an amphibious ship shortage a top Marine called the “single biggest existential threat” to the service.

Defense News – New command and control and a separate 30 mm-cannon equipped variant of the Marine Corp’s amphibious combat vehicle are expected to arrive at units in early 2024.

USNI News – The Marine Corps is pushing for as much simplicity as possible for the Navy’s planned Landing Ship Medium, the craft the service wants to haul Marines and material for its three Marine Littoral Regiments, the acting head of the service said on Thursday.