I just don't get it.
The Marine Corps is in the process of stripping it down to a light infantry/missile slinging/sense & make sense force (recon).
They keep pushing the MEF's as command & control for the joint force in some instances, while pushing the enabler for the joint force in others.
They got to play "lead" in this exercise but USMC leadership should not be fooled.
When Berger came aboard he was pushing the "who are we" meme to justify this radical and unwarranted transformation.
Will an advocate for Force Design 2030 tell me what the Marine Corps is now?
It's got less ground combat power than the 82nd and the gap will widen once those airborne bubbas are all motorized and have a tracked mobile gun.
Same is happening with the heliborne force the Army has in the 101st.
Those are light infantry formations. Add in the 10th Mountain and the US Army will have more formidable ground combat power in their light infantry forces than the USMC does.
Sense and make sense? The USAF, USN, and Space Force are all over that with much more modern systems than the USMC will have even at the end of this radical change.
You don't need to put guys on the ground to scout out targets and the Predator is dead meat on a stick against even second rate powerhouses and we're setting up a squadron or two of that ancient beast? Talk about too little too late.
Marine Air is being severed from support of the ground force so that golden nugget is quickly fading away.
Missiles? The US Army pacific formation will outgun the MLR by magnitudes. Even if they get to the islands modern systems will hunt down every possible hiding spot.
So that leaves Force Design 2030 being what I always said it was.
Its a trip wire force.
Its designed so that if China hits Taiwan, the American people will see (hopefully to Marine Corps planners), small groups of Marines dying a horrible death on TV and the hope continues that folks back home are so enraged that the American people demand blood in return.
So who are the Marines with Force Design 2030?
An organization that is going to die because budget cutters will quickly figure out that the Marine Corps no longer provides ANY value.
We're buying exquisite weapon systems now. Infrastructure hasn't been maintained so its all in shit shape. The Navy shipbuilding is fucked so the amphibs to transport the force are crazy high.
The transformationalist fucked up.
I believe they realize they fucked up but can't find the courage to admit it. Their teeth are dug in, their pride is wounded and they can't find a way to back off their bastardized plan that set the Marine Corps back at least a decade.
If the Marine Corps was actually living up to its hype then we would see a whole slew of Colonels, Majors and especially Generals at the very least forced into retirement.
Understand that they just didn't damage the Marines, they damaged our national security.
