USNI Proceedings – Marines can be part of the solution to countering China’s antiaccess/area-denial strategy.

Naval News – The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in collaboration with Lockheed Martin are developing the OpFires mobile medium-range hypersonic missile assembly to fit on the back of an U.S. Army’s Palletized Load System (PLS) 5-axle 10×10 truck. OpFires will provide the U.S. Army with a highly mobile vehicle for firing hypersonic missiles that is independent of the tractor and trailer combination for the longer-range (strategic) hypersonic missiles. The U.S. Marines may also be interested in OpFires as they use the similar Logistic Vehicle Replacement System (LVSR) 10×10 truck.

USNI Proceedings – For expeditionary advanced base operations, Marine Corps littoral regiments must be less infantry-centric, designed to intercept ships and aircraft, and be able to establish forward arming and refueling points.

Defense News – As the U.S. Marine Corps continues to reshape the force through the commandant’s Force Design 2030 effort and the recently released Talent Management 2030 plan, cyber and information warfare Marines in the future may be further empowered to use their digital skills to create operational advantages for kinetic forces.

War Zone – Just as with the aging CH-53Es it will replace, scenes like this aboard CH-53Ks will become a staple of Marine infantry for decades to come. 

War Zone – The ‘suicide drones’ will allow Marine light armored units to surveil the battlefield and strike targets with pinpoint precision from up above.

Breaking Defense – The Marine Corps has dubbed its new ground-based, anti-ship missile as a top modernization priority and integral to the commandant’s Force Design 2030 efforts. Having progressed from an idea inside the Pentagon to a functional weapon on the shores of Hawaii in roughly two years’ time, NMESIS has quickly made a name for itself even beyond the tortured acronym.

USNI News – The LCS might be ready for a new mission – moving Marines across the Indo-Pacific. As the U.S. Navy navigates a new era of strategic competition with China in a constrained fiscal environment, the service could turn to one of its pained ship programs to help perform the Marines Corps’ Expeditionary Advanced Based Operations (EABO) island-hopping campaign in the Pacific.

Defense News – Raytheon Technologies is pushing its aircraft precision landing system out to more customers globally, making it easier for allied navies to cross-deck on each other’s ships and for Marine jets to island-hop as high-end warfare concepts push the fleet in those directions.

Naval News – The Navy/Marine Corps Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) is set to become operational in 2023, Naval News has learned from Marine Corps Systems Command.

USNI News – Ten Marines and at least one Navy hospital corpsman are among the 13 U.S. troops dead following the two suicide bomb attacks on crowds struggling to get into the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Thursday.

USNI News – More than 2,000 Marines were supporting evacuation operations and security in Afghanistan, a senior official said Thursday, as the U.S. military hopes to maintain a semblance of control to process more Americans, Afghans and other evacuees onto military transport planes at the Hamid Karzai International Airport.

Meanwhile, more than 200 infantry Marines along with detachments of heavy vehicle crews are embarked on USS Arlington (LPD-24) to support humanitarian aid and disaster relief operations in Haiti after the devastating Aug. 14 magnitude-7.2 earthquake, the service said.

War on the Rocks – It is time to station marines in Alaska. The Marine Corps needs Alaska to train. It needs Alaska to deter aggression in vital U.S. littoral regions such as the Bering Strait and the Northwest Passage. And, most importantly, it needs a location from which it can respond in a controlled manner to crises and hostile actions in the Western Pacific.

CIMSEC – The Marine Corps is not prepared for a battle of signatures. Despite being smaller and lighter than the Army, the Marines are no less vulnerable to attacks from spectrally aware adversaries. 

Modern War Institute – The newest US maritime strategy, Advantage at Sea, fails to include the Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) as a viable operational component for competition in the gray zone. Though Advantage at Sea recognizes the ever-growing Chinese maritime threat, it does not provide a practical way for the United States to address that threat. As the Marine Corps reshapes itself through the guidance in Force Design 2030,it must take the opportunity to create a forward-deployed, commando-like force to fill the gaps present in Advantage at Sea. Doing so offers a way to counter China by using disruptive and asymmetric means to both coexist with and deter competitors and, if necessary, fight at sea.

War Zone – The adaptable UH-1Y Venom is now playing a role in the Marine Corps’ pivot toward the anti-submarine warfare mission.

War Zone – Images shared online show Marines conducting training exercises with the Drone40, a tiny quadcopter that can carry a wide variety of payloads.

CIMSEC – Warships can provide sealift support for EABO forces. This would naturally have to fit in with other tasking for these ships, so it generally won’t provide predictable resupply, especially when using high-demand assets, but it would still provide additional sealift capacity at essentially no cost.

Breaking Defense – Buried within the Navy’s fiscal 2022 shipbuilding plan is a major disruption of the amphibious fleet and its industrial base.

Defense One – Recommendations for a nimbler unit organization with fewer grunts and more tech will go to the commandant next year.

Defense News – The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps have finessed their requirement for amphibious ships and are now asking for 28 to 31 traditional amphibious ships that could flow in to support other expeditionary forces already operating during a conflict.

Naval News – According to the United States Marine Corps’ (U.S.M.C.), Fiscal Year 2022 Unfunded Priority List Request PDF, line one requests funds for 35 Naval Strike Missiles (NSM) for the unmanned JLTV “ROGUE Fires” NMESIS program, and line three requests $96 million infunds for 48 Tactical Tomahawks.

War Zone – There have been proposals for a waterborne C-130 Hercules in the past, but the U.S. special operations community might just make it a reality.

USNI News – After 20 years of counterinsurgency and low-end conflict in the Middle East, the Marines are rapidly retooling for a different kind of fight.

USNI News – The Marine Corps has collected proposals to design and build a prototype Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle, meant to far surpass the capabilities of the legacy Light Armored Vehicle and help reconnaissance Marines observe their surroundings, find targets and even take out threats on their own.