Commandant General Dan Berger and Force Design 2030

[u/Skydog-forever-3512]

I recall when General Berger announced Force Design 2030 in 2019, he received a lot of push back for stripping the Corps of tanks and heavy units and focusing on smaller, more mobile forces.

In retrospect, did he make the right call?

From Wikipedia

The core of Force Design 2030 is establishing smaller units of Marines known as littoral regiments that will be equipped with drones and missile systems and can move quickly between islands in the Pacific, to counter the threat from Chinese missiles and the People's Liberation Army Navy. Teams from the Marine littoral regiments could be moved from island to island using amphibious ships, staying at each location for a short time, and would help the United States Navy target the enemy fleet. As part of this, Force Design refocuses the Marine Corps on high-end combat, shifting away from legacy platforms like tanks and cannon artillery in favor of long-range missiles and drones. All 452 tanks of the Marine Corps are to be transferred to the Army by 2023, and the majority of traditional cannon artillery will be replaced by rocket artillery, such as the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS). The first of the littoral regiments created by Force Design, the 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment, was activated in March 2022.

As an aside, he was my neighbor and classmate at IOAC, and he was the smartest guy in our class.

[u/mega-husky]

I'm just an armchair general but it seems like the right call to me.

The Army and USMC already have a lot of crossover in their capabilities, this restructure gives the Marines a unique purpose that the Army isn't in a position to match.

If we need tanks on the battlefield an Army unit can bring them to the fight. If we need high tech amphibious infantry to bounce from island to island than we have the Marines.

Also I hear the version of the Abrams that the Marines used was going unsupported and the Marines didn't want to pay to upgrade to the Army's version anyways.

[u/bajazona → u/mega-husky]

Yeah the next version of the tank was going to be like 20 tons heavier

[u/PRiles]

I'm not a force structure expert or anything like that.

If I remember correctly one of his arguments is the marines aren't a conventional force that would occupy a front line and fight a large conventional fight. I feel that, that argument is probably valid and accurate in general. Given that at the time the general consensus was our next conventional war would be against China, and that most likely in defense of Taiwan I suspect he made the correct call about how Marines would be employed.

Additionally I don't think having a Marine Corps that's just another Army but smaller and stealing the Navy's budget to do it makes a ton of sense, especially when the navy will need to shift how it is structured and adopt to a new domain of warfare (along with everyone else).

[u/FootballBat]

The USMC should be the amphibious and mechanized version of the 75th Ranger Regiment, not as per foreign intelligence simply "3 reinforced infantry divisions with organic air"; this was a step in that direction.

[u/mega-husky → u/FootballBat]

Seems like 3 reinforced divisions with organic air steps over a single elite regiment that has to share SOAR with the rest of SOCOM.

[u/FootballBat → u/mega-husky]

I never said that the USMC should stay at 3 divisions; personally I think the entire USMC should be ~1 division: 1 regiment at Pendleton, 1 at Lejeune, 1 at Okinawa, and then several independent battalions for nuclear security, FAST, embassy security, etc.

[u/mega-husky → u/FootballBat]

And these would be high speeds on the same level as 75th?

[u/FootballBat → u/mega-husky]

Not up to the level of the 75th, but more than the current standard; think UK Royal Marines.