In the event of an emergency, the first Marine Corps Coastal Regiment, which is said to deploy to the southwest of Japan, will soon be launched in Hawaii.
Force Design 30 is a radical reorganization of the Marine Corps to counter China, which has undergone modernization such as longer range while the Marine Corps is fighting against guerrillas in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
It seems that it will be organized by 1800-2000 people, with the 1st Battalion of the 3rd Marine Regiment in Hawaii as the parent body.
The regiment will abolish all 16 amphibious vehicles and field artillery it had so far, and will replace it with a new amphibious ship and a landing craft.
In addition, the artillery unit was reorganized into an intermediate-range missile company equipped with NSM (Naval Strike Missiles). The squadron will be replaced with 12 to 15 KC130s, and the RQ-21A Blackjack will be replaced with 6 MQ-9A reapers. The MV-22 Osprey is deferred for airlifting long-range firepower.
Personally, I assumed that this MLR would be the core stand-in force of EABO (Expeditionary Forward Base Operation), but it seems to be a little different, according to the recent explanation by Commandant of the Marine Corps Burger.
Stand-in forces are distributed in small units within A2 / AD, making them difficult to capture by constantly making unpredictable movements, improving survivability and giving a dilemma to enemy decision making. It is a unit that collects information on enemy ships from the competition stage, supports the targeting of joint forces, and in the event of an armed attack situation, engages in long-range firepower combat and cross-regional ISR.
The formation of the unit is said to have elements of the Marine Corps, the Navy, special forces, each ministry, and the host country, and seems to be organized as a task force. There is almost no doubt that the functions required for the Marine Corps will be extracted from the MLR.
Considering the operation in the operation, it is a unit that forms the front line. Currently in Hawaii, but depending on the situation, it will expand to Guam and further forward.
Through what it calls Force Design 2030, the Marine Corps is taking drastic steps to reshape itself for “peer“ competition with China, which invested heavily in advanced, long-range missiles while the United States was preoccupied with low-tech guerrilla warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A new Hawaii Marine Littoral Regiment — the first in the Corps — is expected to soon be activated and will be made up of 1,800 to 2,000 Marines drawn in part from the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment at Kaneohe Bay.
The unit will utilize amphibious ships and boats, with a new class of vessel, the Light Amphibious Warship, being designed for its needs.
That radical restructuring of the Marine Corps in Hawaii includes the planned removal of all 16 tanklike amphibious vehicles and elimination of all cannon artillery.
Approximately 500 of 650 artillery Marines with the 1st Battalion, 12th Marine Regiment will be moved elsewhere, with the remainder to be part of a medium-range missile battery outfitted with Naval Strike Missiles intended to inflict damage to ships at sea, the Marine Corps said.
Attached to the Marine Littoral Regiment, it would be the first such ground-based missile-firing unit in Hawaii.
The Corps also said it is removing all of its conventional helicopters at the Marine Corps base — more than three dozen in all — and will replace them with a squadron of 12 to 15 fixed-wing KC-130 refueling and cargo aircraft.
Two squadrons of MV-22 tilt-rotor Ospreys will remain and are key to the new plan for long-range transport.
Also on tap is a plan to trade smaller RQ-21A Blackjack drones for six big MQ-9A Reaper uncrewed aerial systems that have a wingspan of 66 feet or more.
About 60 Marines with Combat Assault Company, the unit that operates amphibious assault vehicles, will transfer to the new Marine Littoral Regiment as an engineer platoon.
The 2nd and 3rd infantry battalions at Kaneohe will be deactivated, with many of those Marines also expected to become part of the Marine Littoral Regiment. That formation in turn will include fast-moving sub-units that can operate as a disruptive “inside force“ within range of enemy missiles.
Under that scenario, detachments of 50 to 80 Marines would set up rapidly, fire missiles from trucks and move to avoid being targeted.
The new concept came together during the two-week Large Scale Exercise 2021 in August with groups of Hawaii-based artillery Marines arriving ashore at the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai via big hovercraft and MV-22 tilt-rotor Ospreys.
Their goal was to detect, while camouflaged and with low digital signatures, passing enemy ships.
In one of the most realistic Marine Corps field experiments to date of a new unmanned truck missile launcher, two Naval Strike Missiles were fired over 100 nautical miles (115 statute miles) to strike the decommissioned Navy frigate ex-USS Ingraham 60 nautical miles from Kauai.
To avoid an adversary counterattack, the Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System “followed“ a leader vehicle to a Marine KC-130 on the airfield to practice loading it.
The Pearl Harbor submarine USS Chicago, a P-8 maritime patrol aircraft and F /A-18 Super Hornets also fired on the ship.
The scenario — watched by Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday — ”highlighted the new and important role Marines will play for the naval and joint force in future global competition and conflicts involving key maritime terrain,“ the Corps said in a release.
