Marines with 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, assigned to Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force – Crisis Response – Central Command 20.2, conduct fire and maneuver during a fire team assault range in Jordan, July 31, 2020. (Lance Cpl. Robert Kuehn\/Marine Corps)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe Marine Corps will be getting rid of three infantry battalions, though it does plan to fully staff every battalion that remains, something that Corps has fallen short of in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the shrinking size, the Marine Corps does plan to invest more time into training Marine infantry to be more well-rounded, if less specialized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Berger\u2019s vision sees a smaller lighter, faster Corps armed with heavy weapons fighting a near-peer opponent capable of hitting the Marines on the ground harder than anyone the Corps has fought since World War II.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To counter that hit, the Corps will fight in small, dispersed units capable of sinking ships, tracking submarines, launching electronic weapons and overall holding its own long enough for the rest of the joint force to take on the fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The distributed operations fight so far has only left two obvious roles for the infantry: One is to protect small expeditionary advanced bases, while the \u00adartillery and cyberwarfare Marines conduct the real fight. And, two, to \u00adconduct small-scale raids, which will allow the Corps to take airfields or launch missiles deep inside enemy territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the two relatively small roles, combined with the ascendency of other parts of the Marine Corps, like artillery, put into question a Marine Corps historically centered on the infantry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A superior ground force<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
During World War I, the Marine Corps proved it was a ground force to be reckoned with. Fighting in the trenches as part of the U.S. expeditionary force Marines earned the Devil Dog nickname.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the role of the Marine Corps still took decades of internal debate to decide, said Ed Nevgloski, \u00addirector of the Marine Corps history division.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Marine Corps is bitterly divided throughout the early 1900s into the 1930s,\u201d Nevgloski said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the 1920s and 1930s the Corps developed the advanced base concept under famed Marine Corps Commandant Gen. John A. Lejeune.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe finally puts his foot down,\u201d Nevgloski said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The concept would see Marines create advanced bases scattered through the Pacific to provide \u00adrefueling and rearming ports for the Navy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Along with a massive expansion of the force in World War II, specialization was required and thus the birth of Marine occupational specialties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn World War II we expand so much that we have rear echelon responsibilities \u2026 that\u2019s where you start to see the separation and that the infantry forms the \u00adbackbone of what the Marine Corps mission really is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As World War II started, the concept was used as part of the U.S. island hopping campaign against the Japanese, which saw the Corps take strategically important islands in the Pacific and allowed the allies to push bombers closer to the Japanese mainland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the Marine air-ground task force, or MAGTF, was developed, the importance of the infantry was emphasized. The task organization of the Corps as a whole, from the air wing to logistics, was focused on providing the infantry whatever it needed in the fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat it also does is it inculcates and instills into every MOS within the Marine Corps that they have a role in the Marine Corps\u2019 primary mission and they have a role in defeating the enemy,\u201d Nevgloski said.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWith only two obvious and relatively small roles in the future fight, the place of Marine infantry has been put into question. (Lance Cpl. Colton Brownlee\/Marine Corps)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nAfter nearly two decades of fighting in the Middle East the Corps is once again in a transition period, searching for a mission it can uniquely fill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Berger, that mission sees the Marine Corps returning to its nautical roots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new expeditionary advanced base operations will see the Corps take and hold small islands in the littorals of any future battlefield with the goal of enabling the Navy\u2019s maritime campaign, while being small enough to avoid any single devastating blow by the enemy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The expeditionary advanced bases could be used as resupply points for the Navy, as submarine hunting bases or fire bases for Marine Corps ship-sinking long-range artillery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To achieve that small, mobile force that packs a punch, the Marine Corps has ditched its tanks and plans on switching most traditional tube artillery units into missile units.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It also plans on investing in unmanned aerial vehicles like the MQ-9 Reaper, which ideally will provide better long-range reconnaissance assets, while also giving the Corps a powerful downrange weapon system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The primacy of the Marine Corps infantry has so far stood the test of time, but the shift in focus to long range fires and a subordinate role to Navy maneuver may change that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRight now, the infantry is the centerpiece and \u00adartillery, aviation other capabilities support the infantry. Over time the artillery and infantry will be the centerpiece and the infantry will be the supporting arm,\u201d retired Marine Col. Mark Cancian said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If a generation of Marines move through the Corps with that dynamic, \u201cthe Marine Corps will become a long-range strike service \u2026 and the ethos of the infantry will no longer permeate the Marine Corps, the Marine Corps would look much more, frankly, like the Army,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though the culture may change, the fighting spirit of the Corps will never be in doubt, according to Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Troy Black.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe future fight will still require Marines to \u2018first and foremost,\u2019 have a \u201cwarfighting ethos that we literally locate, close with and destroy our enemy,\u201d he told Marine Corps Times in February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wong said what he sees happening is the long-range fires community taking on some of the ethos of the infantry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Berger describes \u201chow the Marine Corps is going to be this kind of raiding force that\u2019s the stand in force, on your own, dispersed, there\u2019s something about the infantry culture that\u2019s there,\u201d Wong said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whatever the impact on the culture may be, it still leaves the Corps looking for what missions the infantry can do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a big re-evaluation going on and there are different factions with different ideas and who knows which direction it\u2019s going to go in,\u201d said B.A. Friedman, a military analyst who focuses on amphibious warfare. \u201cThey don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With an eye on great power competition the Marine Corps does know it can no longer use the infantry as a blunt weapon facing off one-on-one versus the opponent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One concept sees the infantry acting in support of a maneuvering artillery battalion. In March, 12th Marines, an artillery unit, took charge of an exercise it conducted with Marine infantry supporting it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHistorically we had what\u2019s called direct support \u2014 artillery supported the infantry as they secured an objective,\u201d Col. Michael Roach, commander of 12th Marines, told Marine Corps Times. \u201cIn this case we were the supported force, so in both exercises an infantry unit was attached to the artillery unit, so that\u2019s a change. We had artillery officers as mission commanders for infantry forces.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The support may be exciting, like in high mobility artillery rocket system rapid infiltration missions, where Marines drop in for a quick raid on an enemy held island to help a C-130 land and deploy a single volley deep behind enemy lines. The missions also may be boring, like providing perimeter security on semi-permanent HIMARS fire base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The infantry Marines may also be tasked to complete missions that fall outside their normal specialties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Corps is interested in tracking \u00adsubmarines and focusing infantry \u00adMarines on providing security to expeditionary advanced bases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Or, as the Marine Corps continues to add firepower, Marines may be manning larger more powerful drones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Outside of small scale raids or base security for an expeditionary advanced base, Wong said the infantry could have one more often-overlooked \u00admission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The U.S. can use Marines to develop relationships with the nations surrounding China and Russia, using the infantry on cross-training exercises like Cobra Gold or the rotational force in Darwin, Australia, to limit the great powers regional aggression, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mills also pointed out that if China were to invade a nation like Thailand or even Japan, the role of the infantry would be key in defending territory against the Chinese military.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Changing shape<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The infantry\u2019s shape is also changing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The goal of providing a small squad level drone played in part in the Corps\u2019 decision to increase the size of the rifle squad to 15 Marines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The infantry squad may also see an increase in responsibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With increased dispersion throughout small littoral islands, future Marine companies may take on the responsibility once held by battalions, while platoons or even squads may take on what was previously reserved for companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Friedman said there will likely be no external change to Marine infantry, but rather an internal one in how it is trained an organized to best fit the mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No longer can the Marine Corps be made up of three Marine expeditionary forces that look almost identical and \u00addeploy on Marine expeditionary units that are almost identical, Friedman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A MEU heading to the \u00adMediterranean Sea, where the expected threat is embassy evacuation, should be specially tailored to that mission, while one heading to the Pacific should be specially prepared to fight within the EABO concept and dispersed operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Marine Corps plans to make \nits new Infantry Marine Course the standard grunt course by 2023. (Cpl. James Marchetti\/Marine Corps)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\u201cWe\u2019ve got to start tailoring our infantry forces and what our right mix is, who knows,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To prepare infantry Marines for this future, the Corps is looking into extending its enlisted School of Infantry and possibly combining all or some of the different military occupational specialties within the infantry field into one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Corps already has completed its first experimental 14-week Infantry Marine Course, which is five weeks longer than the previous SOI course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The school teaches Marines 21 new skills with a focus on increased use and experience with multiple infantry weapons systems along with specific training in expeditionary advanced base scenarios.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Marine Corps plans to make the new Infantry Marine Course the standard grunt training by 2023, to coincide with a plan to consolidate all infantry military occupational specialties.<\/p>\n\n\n\t