The Marine Corps later this year plans to activate in Hawaii its first-ever Marine Littoral Regiment — the centerpiece of a sweeping force redesign enabling troops to operate in small units with ship-killing missiles from the islands that dot the Western Pacific.
Marine Corps looks at building 3 new Pacific regiments to counter China February 3 U.S. Marines rehearse a beach landing July 8, 2015, as part of Talisman Sabre 15 at Dundee Beach in Fog Bay, Northern Territory, Australia. (Lance Cpl. Samantha Villarreal/Marine Corps) Throughout the next decade the Marine Corps may create as many as three Marine littoral regiments, all based in the Pacific to keep a continued presence to deter China. Marine Corps Times first reported news of the Marine littoral regiment in January 2020. Through experimentation and wargaming, top Corps leaders are looking to the new formation specifically to support the dispersed expeditionary advanced base operations.
Arming the new Marine Littoral Regiment (MLR) with offensive ground-based antiship missiles (GBASMs) but no defensive surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) is as bold as it is risky. The Marine Corps has not been so ill-equipped to face high-end naval and air forces since the first year of World War II. Retired Navy Captain Wayne P. Hughes Jr.’s missile “Salvo Model” suggests the Marine Corps needs a high-to-medium air-defense (HIMAD) system to conduct littoral operations in a contested environment and expeditionary advanced base operations.
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U.S. Marines march to the beach from a landing craft utility boat as part of an amphibious assault for exercise Baltic Operations 2019. (MC3 Jack D. Aistrup/U.S. Navy) In 2021 the Marine Corps will see a new unit come to life. The Marine littoral regiment is one designed specifically to fit within Commandant Gen. David Berger’s plan for the future Corps to fight a dispersed war in the enemy littorals. The Marine Corps’ III Marine Expeditionary Force will standup the first three Marine littoral regiments and begin a three-year experiment to figure out how to best build and fight the regiments.
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