Naval News – U.S. Marines from the 11th Marine Regiment stood up the Corps’ first Long-Range Missile battery on the 21st of June.

Defense News – A U.S. Marine Corps unit spent seven months in the Indo-Pacific testing the service’s warfighting modernization effort, offering a glimpse at what future operations in the region might look like.

USNI News – The U.S. is sending two amphibious warships and thousands of Marines to the Middle East to bolster regional security after Iranian forces threatened commerce in and out of the Persian Gulf, the Pentagon announced Thursday.

Naval News – The U.S. Marine Corps has added eight Hero-120 loitering munitions to the Long-Range Unmanned Surface Vessel built by Metal Shark. The LRUSV is intended to contribute to long-range precision fires for the USMC and conduct recon for distributed maritime operations and distributed lethality in the Marine’s Force Design 2030 plan.

Sandboxx – Late last year, Marine Corps F-35C Joint Strike Fighters launched from Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, CA, on a journey of more than 2,500 miles across the Pacific to Hawaii. This journey, already a feat for tactical aircraft, was made more impressive in that it was the first time in some four decades that the Marine Corps had conducted such an air transit without support from Air Force tankers. The Corps’ own KC-130Js refueled the 5th-generation fighters, said Lt. Col. Courtney O’Brien, squadron commander of VMGR-352, to which the tanker aircraft belong.

Defense News – A look back on the career of Marine Corps Commandant David Berger.

USNI News – When Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger laid out his vision for the Marine Corps, it included a fundamental manpower shift. Instead of the service’s generations-old train-and-replace model that relied on young Marines who signed on for a single four-year enlistment, the commandant of the Marine Corps shifted its priorities to emphasize retaining Marines. It has been nearly two years since Berger released Talent Management 2030, which laid out how the force would begin to recruit, train and retain Marines.

Defense News – A June update to Force Design 2030 calls, in part, for a “holistic mothership experimentation campaign plan” that addresses how the Corps’ prized amphibious ships might house and launch unmanned aircraft and vessels, along with an undefined array of other warfighting technology.

Breaking Defense – In the year and a half since the Marine Corps published its “Concept for Stand-In Forces,” senior leadership say the service’s reconnaissance capabilities, and particularly the need for a family of vehicles, is “getting the most attention.”

Defense News – The presumed future commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps wants to accelerate the service’s implementation of its Force Design 2030 modernization effort.

Defense News – The U.S. Marine Corps is taking the first step to define its next-generation maritime pre-positioning ship, which will be smaller than the vessels currently serving that purpose, but still able to support distributed maritime operations.

Defense News – The general who has been nominated to become the next top Marine signaled his strong commitment to two of the main priorities of the current commandant: reshaping the Marine Corps and building out the military’s amphibious fleet.

War Zone – The U.S. Marine Corps has formally activated its first unit that will be equipped with ground-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles. The Marines are currently in the process of determining exactly how this unit will be equipped and employed, but the service expects to have a fully operational Tomahawk-armed battalion before the end of the decade.

CIMSEC – During a future conflict, the USMC may be operating multiple Expeditionary Advanced Bases (EABs) on dispersed islands across the Western Pacific. Within their respective island groups, the bases may reposition frequently to complicate enemy targeting. These EABs would either be established prior to the conflict while access was open, or they would be forcibly established with the joint support of naval assets fighting their way in. But naval support may not be accessible enough to provide steady logistical support to advance bases. This is an acutely challenging problem for EABs and demands innovation.

Defense News – The U.S. Marine Corps is examining what unmanned systems and disruptive technology will benefit the force during amphibious operations in the coming decades, and which combination of ships would best serve future missions.

USNI News – When the Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group returns from deployment this week, it will mark the beginning of a shift in how amphibious forces deploy globally – shifting naval resources away from the Middle East to the Western Pacific.

Defense News – The U.S. Marine Corps’ Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle is undergoing testing throughout this year, cementing a previously debatable requirement that senior officials now believe will be critical in Europe, the Middle East and Africa — though too heavy for Pacific environs.

War Zone – Marines see loitering munitions launched in swarms from many aircraft, including F-35s and MV-22s, as critical to winning a future fight.

1945 – Let the paradigm shift continue! This week the Biden administration nominated General Eric Smith, the deputy U.S. Marine Corps commandant for combat development and integration, to ascend to the post of commandant, or top uniformed marine. This comes as glad tidings to those of us who favor “naval integration,” meaning the effort to alloy the American sea services—the Marine Corps, Navy, and Coast Guard—into a single keen-edged implement for denying, winning, and exploiting command of the sea in concert with our fellow armed services and allies.

USNI News – After three years of modeling and experimentation to overhaul the Marine Corps for an island-hopping campaign in the Indo-Pacific, service officials say they are done divesting of older platforms and capabilities and need more money to continue modernizing the force. 

The annual update to Force Design 2030, released Monday, says the Marines will ask for more funding to address infrastructure needs like base housing while continuing to build a lighter force that’s mobile enough to move smaller units around islands and shorelines.

Defense News – The 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment that arrived in the Philippines this spring for the annual Balikatan exercise was nearly unrecognizable from last year, leaders say.

USNI News – Amid a delay in fielding the Marine Corps’ new Amphibious Combat Vehicle program, sailors and Marines are adjusting how they move Marines ashore.

War Zone – The Marine Corps plans to employ its Long Range Unmanned Surface Vessels loaded with various payloads as strike and reconnaissance platforms.

USNI News – The Pentagon needs to make the most progress in logistics to counter China, Marine Corps commandant Gen. David Berger said Tuesday.

Texas National Security Review – The Marine Corps’ Force Design 2030, written under the direction of the 38th commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. David Berger, has been the target of much criticism since its release in 2020. In this article, former Undersecretary of the Navy and Deputy Secretary of Defense Bob Work addresses these criticisms and defends the document’s vision for the future of the Corps. Ultimately, he argues that it’s time for the self-proclaimed Chowderites, who have fought without success to oppose the commandant’s vision, to cede the field.