Defense News – The U.S. Marine Corps has overhauled the force faster than initially expected when it kicked off a major modernization effort three years ago ­— but despite this early progress, two top generals say the service wants more capability faster for deployed forces.

Defense News – The U.S. Marine Corps will test out its first stern landing vessel at an Army event this spring, a top general said Wednesday, as the service prepares to create a fleet of shore-to-shore connectors to support Marines operating in the Pacific.

Defense News – As the U.S. Marine Corps considers how to move weapons around contested waters to resupply forces ashore, it’s copying an unusual source: drug traffickers.

USNI News – Marines are looking to push as many tasks as possible to autonomous systems as the service aims to operate across wide swaths of the Pacific.

Breaking Defense – Breaking Defense was on hand to see a Marine combat logistics regiment train to stay low-profile while extending the Corps’, and Navy’s, reach.

War Zone – The Marines are purchasing Iron Dome systems to help defend against ever increasing threats posed by cruise missiles and drones.

USNI News – Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 3 (VMU 3) introduced its new Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles in a ceremony at Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, last week.

USNI News – What began with 250 American Marines and sailors at Australia’s “Top End” 12 years ago has grown into a Marine air-ground task force of 2,500 that spends its seven-month rotation spread across Australia and the western Pacific.

The Guardian – Commercial vessels would be invited to carry sailors and marines in Strait of Hormuz, part of Persian Gulf where Pentagon is beefing up presence.

USNI News – USS Bataan (LHD-5) and USS Carter Hall (LSD-50) are in the Mediterranean Sea, having crossed through the Strait of Gibraltar Wednesday. Bataan, along with Carter Hall and elements of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, is being dispatched to U.S. Central Command as part of the U.S. response to Iran’s continued seizure of commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.

Naval News – U.S. Marines from the 11th Marine Regiment stood up the Corps’ first Long-Range Missile battery on the 21st of June.

Defense News – A U.S. Marine Corps unit spent seven months in the Indo-Pacific testing the service’s warfighting modernization effort, offering a glimpse at what future operations in the region might look like.

USNI News – The U.S. is sending two amphibious warships and thousands of Marines to the Middle East to bolster regional security after Iranian forces threatened commerce in and out of the Persian Gulf, the Pentagon announced Thursday.

Naval News – The U.S. Marine Corps has added eight Hero-120 loitering munitions to the Long-Range Unmanned Surface Vessel built by Metal Shark. The LRUSV is intended to contribute to long-range precision fires for the USMC and conduct recon for distributed maritime operations and distributed lethality in the Marine’s Force Design 2030 plan.

Sandboxx – Late last year, Marine Corps F-35C Joint Strike Fighters launched from Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, CA, on a journey of more than 2,500 miles across the Pacific to Hawaii. This journey, already a feat for tactical aircraft, was made more impressive in that it was the first time in some four decades that the Marine Corps had conducted such an air transit without support from Air Force tankers. The Corps’ own KC-130Js refueled the 5th-generation fighters, said Lt. Col. Courtney O’Brien, squadron commander of VMGR-352, to which the tanker aircraft belong.

Defense News – A look back on the career of Marine Corps Commandant David Berger.

USNI News – When Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger laid out his vision for the Marine Corps, it included a fundamental manpower shift. Instead of the service’s generations-old train-and-replace model that relied on young Marines who signed on for a single four-year enlistment, the commandant of the Marine Corps shifted its priorities to emphasize retaining Marines. It has been nearly two years since Berger released Talent Management 2030, which laid out how the force would begin to recruit, train and retain Marines.

Defense News – A June update to Force Design 2030 calls, in part, for a “holistic mothership experimentation campaign plan” that addresses how the Corps’ prized amphibious ships might house and launch unmanned aircraft and vessels, along with an undefined array of other warfighting technology.

Breaking Defense – In the year and a half since the Marine Corps published its “Concept for Stand-In Forces,” senior leadership say the service’s reconnaissance capabilities, and particularly the need for a family of vehicles, is “getting the most attention.”

Defense News – The presumed future commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps wants to accelerate the service’s implementation of its Force Design 2030 modernization effort.

Defense News – The U.S. Marine Corps is taking the first step to define its next-generation maritime pre-positioning ship, which will be smaller than the vessels currently serving that purpose, but still able to support distributed maritime operations.

Defense News – The general who has been nominated to become the next top Marine signaled his strong commitment to two of the main priorities of the current commandant: reshaping the Marine Corps and building out the military’s amphibious fleet.

War Zone – The U.S. Marine Corps has formally activated its first unit that will be equipped with ground-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles. The Marines are currently in the process of determining exactly how this unit will be equipped and employed, but the service expects to have a fully operational Tomahawk-armed battalion before the end of the decade.

CIMSEC – During a future conflict, the USMC may be operating multiple Expeditionary Advanced Bases (EABs) on dispersed islands across the Western Pacific. Within their respective island groups, the bases may reposition frequently to complicate enemy targeting. These EABs would either be established prior to the conflict while access was open, or they would be forcibly established with the joint support of naval assets fighting their way in. But naval support may not be accessible enough to provide steady logistical support to advance bases. This is an acutely challenging problem for EABs and demands innovation.

Defense News – The U.S. Marine Corps is examining what unmanned systems and disruptive technology will benefit the force during amphibious operations in the coming decades, and which combination of ships would best serve future missions.