Land Ho!

Our Navy is supreme at sea. Some continue to agitate for even more blue water forces to confront Chinese naval power far from Chinese shores even though the PLAN is still but a shadow compared to our Navy. Worry about Chinese capabilities regarding Taiwan, to be sure, but China can't fight for very long at any significant distance from Chinese shores. I've argued for getting the Navy closer to the shores in order to bring naval power to bear on land problems.

Fortunately, the United States Navy is coming ashore:

Navy task forces, usually with a battalion of combat-ready marines (and helicopters to move them far inland) along (on landing ships that resemble small aircraft carriers), prowl the world's oceans. The navy is still the service that can have some combat ready aircraft, and marines, to go anywhere, first. But there's more. The new naval infantry force (NECC, Naval Expeditionary Combat Command) already has 20,000 sailors assigned, and will eventually contain 40,000 troops capable of operating along the coast and up rivers. NECC units are already in Iraq, and ready to deploy anywhere else they are needed.

Expeditionary Strike Groups with naval firepower and Marines, naval infantry for coastal and river work, smaller ships to work close to shore, and a willingness to fight this way will make our Navy more useful than sitting in figurative Scapa Flow waiting for a High Seas Fleet that hasn't even been built yet.