What Force Design 2030 Really Does

 Read the whole article HERE!

Note.  I just plucked out a few sections that are of interest to me...

via Proceedings

 The Marine Corps is currently experimenting with Marine littoral regiments (MLRs), to the consternation of the critics, but it is far from certain how these units will evolve or how many will be established. 

How can you embark on a change this massive and sweeping and not have a vision of what it will look like when its finished.  This is 101 change agent failure.  If the ones leading the change don't know what it looks like then how can the people implementing the change know?

 Even if the Marine Corps establishes all three planned MLRs, the service is larger than three regiments. This does not turn the Marine Corps into a unidimensional organization devoted to a single scenario. MLRs provide theater-relevant intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR), precision strike, air defense, and close combat capabilities—all of which are highly relevant in any crisis response scenarios.

Ok, but the entire Marine Corps has been affected by this concept. If the change was less sweeping then this argument would be valid but we're seeing this on both coasts.  Additionally if you follow the money then its easy to see that traditional missions have been shit canned for this one capability.

 The Marine Corps’ warfighting philosophy is maneuver warfare, and the Marine Corps remains a heavy infantry force focused on closing with and destroying the enemy with fire and maneuver.

This is highly debatable.  Heavy infantry forces don't fight on water.  The new concept has Marine infantry acting as a RAF regiment protecting airfields and missiles.  Hardly a force that is optimized to close with and destroy the enemy.  Maybe a butched up RAF Regiment but the missions are the same.

 It is a convenient strawman for critics to postulate a small Marine detachment on an isolated and desolate island where Marines are cut off from resupply and subjected to pummeling attacks from precision munitions. This is not what SIF are intended to do. Could they seize and operate from a small island in a key location? Yes, but it is neither their primary employment option nor their focus. Partner nations throughout the western Pacific and Indian Ocean, including Japan, Philippines, Guam, Australia, Indonesia, and the Solomon Islands, all contain large land masses that provide substantial opportunities for cover, concealment, and local resupply.

This is another tent pole that seems more than a bit wobbly. Why is it assumed that allied nations will participate in a fight against the Chinese instead of simply staying on the sideline watching how things pan out?  There will be tremendous internal pressure in all countries listed to stay out of the fight unless they're directly attacked.  I don't see the Chinese attempting to widen a war with the US by involving other nations.  Additionally I can see a psyops campaign being launched to ENSURE partner nations remain out of the fight or face China's wrath.

 Of course, given the modest size of the currently envisioned EAB munitions, it is most appropriate to view this at the operational level at which the EAB’s primary contribution, should deterrence fail, is to enhance the joint kill web while the adversary reduces its stockpile of precision-guided munitions (PGMs) in a costly effort to destroy the EABs.

As usual the real truth comes out at the end of the article.  Stand In Forces will be detected and when detected it is hoped that they absorb hits/resources that won't be deployed against the fleet.

A ship can sail away.  If the Chinese decide to destroy entire grid squares because they have a general idea of where the EAB is then they get an easy kill.  Evacuation of wounded is almost never discussed because it just won't happen.

So this paper that seems to praise the current course still leaves me wanting.

Where are we with this thing?

1.  The Marine Corps is going SIF Corps wide.

2.  The USMC will no longer have a warfighting function but instead act as ISR for the joint force.

3.  Marine Infantry is essentially dead and is just a butched up RAF Regiment designed to protect missiles and airfields.

4.  They admit that these EABs can be detected and the HOPE is that they will displace before hit.  Idiot thinking.  The Chinese will eradicate entire grid squares from distance to kill the MLR detachments.

5.  EABs dying in place is a feature not a bug.  This is a die in place force.  It will inform the joint force by being destroyed in place and it is hoped that in dying they will save a warship by taking hits meant for the fleet.

Did I miss anything?

Defense Battalions didn't work in WW2 and this  reinvention of the wheel won't work in 2020-2040 time frame.