The war games that led to USMC Force Design 2030 must have been awful...

“war games helped shape my conclusion that modest and incremental improvements to our existing force structure and legacy capabilities would be insufficient to overcome evolving threat capabilities.”

The above quote is HIGHLIGHTED and "popped out" in the Force Design 2030 that Headquarters Marine Corps released about two days ago.

I've been chewing on that thing and I keep coming back to this statement.

Kinda stunning isn't it.

In hindsight we should have seen this coming (I guess) cause the Commandant has said things like "China is our pacing threat"..."we can't be wedded to the past" (paraphrasing that one) and other things that should have told us that this was a big deal.

Many, myself included, have focused on the hardware side of this thing.  But if you step back and look for cause then you can see it above.

War games obviously showed us getting smashed...or in a fight so hard that it stunned participants.

The question is no longer whether or not this will happen.  I don't think this plan will survive Congress or the defense contractors in its current form, but one thing is clear.

The Marine Corps is changing to meet the Chinese threat.  The only question that remains is whether or not this NEW Marine Corps will be of any use outside the Pacific.