Is the Commandant signalling a return to crisis response with his writing contest?

via Marine Corps Association

Marines Come From the Sea—What Comes Next?

For generations, Marines have launched from the sea to fight and win our Nation’s battles. Whether delivering crisis response, deterring aggression, or projecting combat power, the Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), embarked on an Amphibious Ready Group (ARG), has stood as the Corps’ most agile and lethal forward-deployed force.

Now it’s your turn to shape the future.

Announcing the Commandant’s Rapid Response Essay Contest – MEU 2035

What should the MEU of 2035 look like? Given a shipbuilding baseline that sustains three continuously deployed, three-ship ARG/MEUs, how should the MEU be task-organized, equipped, and what mission essential tasks should they be capable of accomplishing to meet the demands of Geographic Combatant Commanders across the globe?

This is your opportunity to influence the future force. Submissions need to offer realistic, feasible proposals that leverage near-term capabilities, emerging technologies, and creative applications of non-standard platforms to deter and win in the future environment.  For this contest, proposals are constrained to no more than a three-ship ARG/MEU construct which can include one big-deck.

Whether you’re a warfighter, planner, or innovator—bring your best ideas forward.

Contest Runs: May 22 – August 31 

Length: 2000-3000 words 

Submit essays as MS Word documents to Gazette@mca-marines.org​

Remember when the "new" MEU organization came out? I called it weak.  Weak as water.

It shows just how dramatic the shift to the "stand in force" has been.  How dramatic the shift toward a "sensing" unit the Marine Corps was being beaten into.

What I didn't fully realize is how big a step back this whole idea is.  The actions over Iran fully showed it though.

Marine Corps leadership was attempting to tie it to naval task forces.  

It ignored the needs of Combatant Commanders and instead linked itself to Navy missions worldwide.

What they forgot was that the Navy is an independent service with its own prioritizes.  Its own demands.  Its own missions.

In its rush to focus ONLY on the Chinese in the first island chain, Marine Corps leadership ignored the rest of the world.

This is the first crack in the devotion to Force Design 2030.

Berger and Smith destroyed the MAGTF.  Now they're belatedly trying to build it back.

Simply pathetic.  A carpenter knows to measure twice and cut once.  Those fucks sliced up the ground combat component with no care in the world.

Now?

Now my beloved Marine Corps is knocking on the door of irrelevancy.

Not from outside forces but from internal stupidity.

What mistakes were made and how does the Marine Corps fix things?

1.  Rebuild cannon artillery.

2.  Focus on seizing advanced bases, out of area operations and small wars against medium sized and lower forces that have advanced weaponry.

3.  Get our amphib numbers UP!

4.  Establish an electronic attack squadron or three.

5.  Acquire A-10's from the USAF.

6.  Buy CV-90120s to regain a mobile gun system and reestablish our tank battalions.

7.  Provide every vehicle with anti-drone devices.

8.  Increase the size of the Marine Corps from a programmed 172K back to 180K.

9.  Dump specialized gear where possible and piggyback off Army buys where possible (with modification).

That's off the top of my head.  There are more I'm sure.  But make no mistake.  The missteps by the supposedly smartest people in the room have endangered the continued existence of the Marine Corps.

Why do I say that?

Think about it.  The 82nd Airborne is already heavier and has more ground combat power than the 1st Marine Division.  A FREAKING AIRBORNE UNIT!  We arrive by ship and they're even heavier than we are!