Marine commandant stands by Corps overhaul as best way to meet China challenge

The makeover has been wrenching, but the nation’s top Marine insists there is no turning back, not if the nation wants to prepare for its most dangerous adversary.

The decision to scrap most cannon artillery units and every tank battalion in the force was among the most controversial features of Force Design 2030, now-retired Gen. David Berger’s ambitious plan to reshape the Marine Corps to confront an increasingly aggressive China in the Indo-Pacific region.

Some retired generals publicly criticized the concept from the former commandant of the Marine Corps, saying it was overly focused on a narrow set of missions aimed at a single foe.

But Gen. Eric M. Smith, the current commandant, said “Force Design,” as it is known today, was an indispensable response to put the Marine Corps in the best position to take on Beijing. A Marine Corps that for decades was focused on traditional ground combat in Europe and the global war against non-state terror groups decided it was not in the best shape to confront a very different challenge posed by Beijing’s rise as an economic and military superpower.

“The answer was no,” Gen. Smith said this week at a session on the force’s future at the Brookings Institution in Washington. “The Chinese were out-sticking us, they were out-ranging us, they were outmaneuvering us, (and) they were out-building us.”

Although the Marine Corps will maintain some artillery battalions, their new rocket units can strike targets at a far greater range. Despite the grumbles from traditionalists, Gen. Smith also said it simply didn’t make sense to keep their former tank units on the books.

“I can kill a tank at 40 kilometers with a drone. Why would I carry a tank of 72 tons that has a maximum range of 4 kilometers?” he said. “It can be killed with a top-down attack weapon at 10 times the range.”

Divesting itself of artillery and tank battalions is giving the Marine Corps the resources needed for Marine Littorial Regiments that are designed to support sea denial and control missions by firing anti-ship missiles.

The 2022 National Defense Strategy focused on sustaining and strengthening U.S. deterrence against China. The Marine Corps’ primary mission in the region would be to prevent Chinese forces from maneuvering through the main maritime routes through the island chain that roughly surrounds the claimed territorial waters of China.

A rival with the resources and firepower of China requires all branches of the U.S. military to carry out their assigned mission.

“We’ll shut them down and make them untenable for passage. That’s part of the capability that we bring,” Gen. Smith said. “The Marine Corps can’t stand alone. No service can stand alone against the pacing threat” of China.

But critics like retired Lt. Gen. Paul K. Van Riper, a former commander of the 2nd Marine Division, said the Marine Corps under Force Design is sacrificing infantry troops in favor of cyber warriors and missile crew members, losing versatility as a fighting force in the process.

“It will only have [the new resources] because it gave up Marines prepared to close with and destroy the enemy,” Gen. Van Riper said in a March 2022 essay for Marine Corps Times. “The Marine Corps will trade its combined-arms flexibility for a very specialized mission that the U.S. Army already can provide in greater numbers than the Marine Corps ever will.”

The Marine Corps says its units can be adapted to other potential threats and despite the new focus on China, it will have enough combat force to take on other adversaries.

“We are still plenty big enough to deliver a knockout punch,” Gen. Smith said.