Congress, the U.S. Marines, and Missiles: The Fight for Asian Security
The U.S. Marine Corps sensibly asked for tomahawk cruise missiles for its strategy to fight the Chinese Navy in case of war. Why then did Congress say no?
The U.S. Marine Corps may have a communications problem. Since assuming the post of commandant in mid-2019, General David Berger has been pushing operational concepts that make eminent sense for the Western Pacific. They bear such labels as Littoral Operations in a Contested Environment and Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations. Under these concepts, small bodies of marines will flit from island to island and pummel China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy with missile barrages or, better yet, deter the PLA Navy from assaying a breakout from the China seas into the broad Pacific in the first place. Sea-service chieftains codified these concepts through the “Triservice Maritime Strategy” they published earlier this month.