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Feb 8, Los Angeles Times

The Marine Corps of the future will be smaller and use lighter vehicles and lighter personal protective gear but retain its ability to respond swiftly and with intimidating firepower to any global crisis, Commandant Gen. James Amos said Tuesday night.

General Amos

The Marine Corps will add more personnel and resources to its Special Operations Command — the Marines’ equivalent of the Army’s special forces — and to its force guarding against attack via cyberspace.

The Marines, Amos said in a speech at the Marine Memorial Club in San Francisco, will be a “middleweight force” ready to move quickly, probably from ships, to buy time for U.S. officials to decide on a long-term response to a crisis.

Amos pointed to the recent deployment of Marines to support a Camp Pendleton-based battalion in the bitter fight in the Sangin area of Afghanistan as the kind of capability that the Marine Corps will continue to provide.

Within three days of the decision by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Marines aboard ships off Pakistan were part of the fight in Sangin, including with their own attack aircraft. The Camp Pendleton-based Third Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment has been in a bloody battle with Taliban fighters since late September.

The new troops from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, Amos said, are “in direct support of Gen. [David] Petraeus’ winter campaign. Their efforts are further driving a wedge between the insurgents and the local Afghan populace.”

Amos’ speech was billed as his response to a speech made by Gates last year in the same venue in which he challenged the Marine Corps to define its post-Afghanistan role and to anticipate reduced budgets as the nation struggles with a sour economy. Congressional leaders have been briefed on the Marine Corps plans, Amos said.

Amos said the Marine Corps is ready to “right-size” its force. He did not mention numbers but most observers expect a reduction from the current 202,000 level to about 180,000 Marines.

Amos stood by his decision to support cancellation of the $14-billion project to develop what is called the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle that can take Marines from ship to shore. Rather, Amos said, the Marine Corps will begin developing a less expensive amphibious vehicle to do the same task.

“I want to assure you that the Marine Corps will remain our nation’s expeditionary force in readiness and remain the force-of-choice for crisis response,” he said.

Source: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/02/the-marine-corps-of-the-future-will-be-smaller-anduse-lighter-vehicles-and-lighter-personal-protective-gear-but-retain-its-ab.html

1/13/2011 By Cpl. Scott Schmidt, Headquarters Marine Corps

ARLINGTON, Va. — The relevance of the Marine Corps as America’s expeditionary force in readiness was among the commandant of the Marine Corps’ key talking points during a visit to the Surface Naval Association Jan. 13.

Gen James Amos discussed the Corps’ success in the last decade in Iraq and Afghanistan – a success that began with a partnership between Marines and the Navy surface warfare community.

Gen. James Amos, commandant of the Marine Corps

“Weeks after 9/11, Gen. Jim Mattis, current CENTCOM commander, rapidly aggregated two Marine Expeditionary Units of 4,400 combat-ready Marines, and launched from six amphibious ships north into Afghanistan.” Amos recalled. “They provided decision space for our National leaders, and facilitated the introduction of follow-on forces. Their efforts maintained pressure on the Taliban and Al Qaeda, enabled special operation forces and interagency operations, and facilitated the prosecution and subsequent processing of high value targets.”

Amos also pointed out the Corps’ many humanitarian efforts in the aftermath of disasters like Hurricane Katrina, the earthquake in Haiti and the flood in Pakistan, which were made possible by amphibious capabilities.

His anecdotes continued on one common theme that in the past decade, the Marine Corps has reaffirmed its signature role as America’s expeditionary force in readiness.

Recent Defense Department budget cut proposals have called into question the very nature of the Marine Corps. Amos said this is not a question of if the Corps is amphibious, but rather how today’s operations will define that amphibious capability.

“I refer to our Marine Corps of today as a middleweight force,” he said. “We fill the void in our nation’s defense for an agile force that is comfortable operating at the high and low ends of the threat spectrum or the more likely ambiguous areas in between.”

Amos added that for Marines, expeditionary, “is a state of mind that drives the way we organize our forces, train, and procure equipment. You’re either ready to respond to today’s crisis…with today’s force…today…or you’re late and risk being irrelevant.”

The Marine Corps success as a “middleweight force” means the Corps will not be irrelevant.

Source:
Marine commandant reconfirms Marines as expeditionary